A strong weekend at Sepang ended in victories in both FSR World Series (Peter Duivelaar) and World Championship (Bono Huis).
World Series saw a somewhat difficult qualifying, as Jack Keithley and Peter Duivelaar settled for 4th and 5th on the grid, despite being less than 2 tenths from the pole time of Eduard Mallorqui. In the race start both Jack and Peter managed to improve their positions and eventually move into first and second after the crash of Mallorqui and Ivar Kalamees.
After the firt stops Jack started suffering from slight engine heating, forcing the Briton to yield the lead to Peter. After this, no more fighting for the win was carried out as Peter could control the race from the lead, finshing first over the chequered flag to win his second race in succession. After an intense battle with Stephane Rouault, Jack managed to defend his lead until the finish line, bringing home the first 1-2 for Precision this season. Fred Gosling finished 12th in a close queue of several cars.
World Championship continued from where it left in Australia, as Morgan Morand took pole, followed by Bono Huis in second, whereas Mikko Puumalainen had to again settle for a low starting position in 15th. Huis challenged Morand immediately at the start, but the Frenchman managed to keep the lead. Mikko was less lucky as the Finn was subject to contact in the first lap, affecting the handling of his Precision car for the rest of the race.
With the top duo pitting on the same lap, Bono managed to leapfrog Morand thanks to the better work of the Precision crew. The battle between the two continued intense, but Bono was able to keep the necessary gap through pit stops 2 and 3. After the final pit stops, Mikko started his charge towards point positions and the Finn eventually managed to overtake Georgo Baldi in the closing stages. The final lap saw a couple of desperate attempts of Morand to get past Bono, but the kid stayed cool and eventually won his first race of the season.
The result kep Precision a close second in the constructors' championship, whereas Bono and Morand are in a tied lead in the drivers' championship. After finishing eight, Mikko announced his retirement from FSR for an indefinite time, as the vice champion of the previous year will focus on other areas of sim racing. To lessen the disappointment of our Finnish fans, Jaakko Mikkonen will jump in the seat of Mikko for the next couple of races.
Bono Huis commented:
"I was quite happy this time with my qualifying performance, it was the maximum possible result. I expected Morgan to be very fast in the race so I had to try everything in the 1st lap to pass him and I did in turn 2, but I braked too early for T4 so I lost the place again. I was pushing a lot in the 1st stint and the car was sliding a bit in the dirty air of Morgan so towards the end of the stint I was losing more and more time because of tyre wear. Fortunately Morgan had a slow pitstop so I passed him and after that I was surprisingly increasing the gap. The gap was around 2.5s after our final pitstops, Morgan pitted a bit later so he had the advantage in the last stint and was closing in. I lost a lot of time after being held up on purpose by Masciulli and that allowed Morgan to really get close, fortunately he couldn't try an overtake...or so I thought. Great win and looking forward to China."
Peter Duivelaar commented:
"I was very curious before the race to see where we would be with our pace compared to the other teams.
I knew our race pace was fine, I was just a bit worried about Q1, because the laptimes would be very close, but Q1 went well with a second place.
In Q2 I made too many mistakes and only qualified in P5.
The race went much better. After the collision between Mallorqui and Kalamees, Jack was in first position and I was in second place.
After the first pitstop I passed Jack, and from then on I had an easy race, I didn't have to take any risks and could save the engine for the rest of the race.
I'm very happy to have had such a good start to this season with 2 wins.
Also I'm very pleased that we had a 1-2 for Precision Motorsports in this race and I hope we can repeat that in the rest of this season."
Jack Keithley commented:
"I am very happy with the result as Sepang is not one of my favourite tracks, so to come away with a second place is fantastic.
I inherited the lead on lap2, and from then on I managed to pull away to around a 2 second lead, but the long hold on the grid gave us some engine issues that had to be managed the entire race so I could not keep the pace up and eventually Peter overtook me.
The remainder of the race was very intense as It was difficult to balance the pace without hurting the car, but the team did a good job managing that and with good pitstops we always had just enough to hold onto the position and finally brought the car home for 1-2 finish for the team."
Team Manager Ondrej Kuncman commented:
"Winning both races in Sepang for 3rd year in a row is very pleasing, however both of the races were far from easy. in WS both Peter and Jack did great job giving us first double of 2012 and in WC Bono drove one of the best races of his life. Our pace was around 0.2 per lap slower so it is quite incredible the way Bono drove. In China we will make another step forward so hopefully there is less fighting in the last laps.
I would like to thank Mikko for his dedication in his time in Precision Motorsports. He is not leaving though and I am confident we will see him back later this season, meanwhile hopefully he regenerates his energy and comes back even stronger."
To follow the progress of the team during the season, make sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Precision Motorsports Press
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
World Series saw a somewhat difficult qualifying, as Jack Keithley and Peter Duivelaar settled for 4th and 5th on the grid, despite being less than 2 tenths from the pole time of Eduard Mallorqui. In the race start both Jack and Peter managed to improve their positions and eventually move into first and second after the crash of Mallorqui and Ivar Kalamees.
After the firt stops Jack started suffering from slight engine heating, forcing the Briton to yield the lead to Peter. After this, no more fighting for the win was carried out as Peter could control the race from the lead, finshing first over the chequered flag to win his second race in succession. After an intense battle with Stephane Rouault, Jack managed to defend his lead until the finish line, bringing home the first 1-2 for Precision this season. Fred Gosling finished 12th in a close queue of several cars.
World Championship continued from where it left in Australia, as Morgan Morand took pole, followed by Bono Huis in second, whereas Mikko Puumalainen had to again settle for a low starting position in 15th. Huis challenged Morand immediately at the start, but the Frenchman managed to keep the lead. Mikko was less lucky as the Finn was subject to contact in the first lap, affecting the handling of his Precision car for the rest of the race.
With the top duo pitting on the same lap, Bono managed to leapfrog Morand thanks to the better work of the Precision crew. The battle between the two continued intense, but Bono was able to keep the necessary gap through pit stops 2 and 3. After the final pit stops, Mikko started his charge towards point positions and the Finn eventually managed to overtake Georgo Baldi in the closing stages. The final lap saw a couple of desperate attempts of Morand to get past Bono, but the kid stayed cool and eventually won his first race of the season.
The result kep Precision a close second in the constructors' championship, whereas Bono and Morand are in a tied lead in the drivers' championship. After finishing eight, Mikko announced his retirement from FSR for an indefinite time, as the vice champion of the previous year will focus on other areas of sim racing. To lessen the disappointment of our Finnish fans, Jaakko Mikkonen will jump in the seat of Mikko for the next couple of races.
Bono Huis commented:
"I was quite happy this time with my qualifying performance, it was the maximum possible result. I expected Morgan to be very fast in the race so I had to try everything in the 1st lap to pass him and I did in turn 2, but I braked too early for T4 so I lost the place again. I was pushing a lot in the 1st stint and the car was sliding a bit in the dirty air of Morgan so towards the end of the stint I was losing more and more time because of tyre wear. Fortunately Morgan had a slow pitstop so I passed him and after that I was surprisingly increasing the gap. The gap was around 2.5s after our final pitstops, Morgan pitted a bit later so he had the advantage in the last stint and was closing in. I lost a lot of time after being held up on purpose by Masciulli and that allowed Morgan to really get close, fortunately he couldn't try an overtake...or so I thought. Great win and looking forward to China."
Peter Duivelaar commented:
"I was very curious before the race to see where we would be with our pace compared to the other teams.
I knew our race pace was fine, I was just a bit worried about Q1, because the laptimes would be very close, but Q1 went well with a second place.
In Q2 I made too many mistakes and only qualified in P5.
The race went much better. After the collision between Mallorqui and Kalamees, Jack was in first position and I was in second place.
After the first pitstop I passed Jack, and from then on I had an easy race, I didn't have to take any risks and could save the engine for the rest of the race.
I'm very happy to have had such a good start to this season with 2 wins.
Also I'm very pleased that we had a 1-2 for Precision Motorsports in this race and I hope we can repeat that in the rest of this season."
Jack Keithley commented:
"I am very happy with the result as Sepang is not one of my favourite tracks, so to come away with a second place is fantastic.
I inherited the lead on lap2, and from then on I managed to pull away to around a 2 second lead, but the long hold on the grid gave us some engine issues that had to be managed the entire race so I could not keep the pace up and eventually Peter overtook me.
The remainder of the race was very intense as It was difficult to balance the pace without hurting the car, but the team did a good job managing that and with good pitstops we always had just enough to hold onto the position and finally brought the car home for 1-2 finish for the team."
Team Manager Ondrej Kuncman commented:
"Winning both races in Sepang for 3rd year in a row is very pleasing, however both of the races were far from easy. in WS both Peter and Jack did great job giving us first double of 2012 and in WC Bono drove one of the best races of his life. Our pace was around 0.2 per lap slower so it is quite incredible the way Bono drove. In China we will make another step forward so hopefully there is less fighting in the last laps.
I would like to thank Mikko for his dedication in his time in Precision Motorsports. He is not leaving though and I am confident we will see him back later this season, meanwhile hopefully he regenerates his energy and comes back even stronger."
To follow the progress of the team during the season, make sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Precision Motorsports Press
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
