The season 2011 launch took place in the deserts of Bahrain, where the team arrived with good memories from 2010.
World Series saw Jeffrey Rietveld propel his car into 4th spot on the grid after a slightly disappointing lap, with Cyril Werdmuller following in 8th. The race start saw Rietveld losing several spots due to cars queing up into turn 1, whereas Werdmuller was able to jump into 5th. On lap 3, Rietveld's unfortunate race continued as the Dutchman lost his front while having contact with Enrico di Lorento.
The pace of Werdmuller continued promising, as it turned out that the main opponents had chosen a 2-stop strategy as opposed to Werdmuller's one stop. The Dutch failed to recapitulate on the opportunity, however, while suffering a spin in the tricky second section of the track. Eventually, Werdmuller finished 8th, closely followed by Rietveld in 9th, making his way up from all the way back of the grid.
World Championship boosted a significantly better start for the team, as Bono Huis qualified on the front row, just hundreths from pole-sitter Fredrik Nilsson, with Jaakko Mikkonen following in third. Technical problems for Nilsson saw Precision take a double-lead early in the race with Huis-Mikkonen. The team had virtually no problems in keeping formation all the way until the pit stops, whereafter David Greco managed to leapfrog Mikkonen after the pair had executed a couple of questionable moves.
At the end of the day, Bono Huis was able to dominate the race and maintain the gap to Greco, providing him a lights-to-flag victory, while leading every single lap and securing the race fastest lap on the final lap. Jaakko Mikkonen accompanied the result in an excellent third - a result from where the team can happily move forward towards preparing for Melbourne.
Team owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"Almost a perfect weekend to start into the season. The results in the World Championship were close to the maximum possible so I´m very happy about that. In the World Series technical issues and a bit of bad luck prevented us from scoring a better result, but the good thing we learned this weekend is, the pace to fight for the podium is there. I´m looking forward to Melbourne, a track where we had to take one of our worse results in 2010. Melbourne will also be the first real test of the teams to see who can prepare best for a race in just one week time."
Bono Huis (1st) commented:
"A great way to start the season, although we were quite lucky. Twister's speed really impressed me, especially Nilsson who was very fast in both Q1 and Q2. No doubt that he would have been fast in the race too but unfortunately for him he retired in the formation lap which basically put me on pole. First laps were quite difficult, no grip at all but it improved lap by lap and I was able to build a gap to Jaakko and David. I saw after my pitstop that the gap stayed around 4 seconds to P2 so I decided to save the car and make sure to finish the race. A nice victory and perfect start of the season, but we must improve for the next races because it would have been difficult to beat Nilsson."
Jaakko Mikkonen (3rd) commented:
"I didn't really perform at my best in the race but despite it I must say third place is ok. Season will be long and everything counts in the end. My dark moment came after pit stop when Greco passed me. I felt very unconfident with grip level and brakes and decided it's better to play it safe than be sorry."
Jeffrey Rietveld (9th) commented:
"Not really happy about the first race obviously. I was just hoping to get a top 5 in the first race and be conistent with finishes throughout the year. Qualifying was pretty tough as well, I wasn't even close to my pb in qualifying 2 but it was still good enough for a 4th place on the grid. After the first turn, I lost 6 places already because I was stuck behind Conti who made a mistake. In the next lap there was some huge lag which putted me in the rear of someone, and I also lost my front wing.
After I made my pitstop to repair the damage, I was 46 seconds behind Dominguez, so a decent finish was almost impossible. For the rest of the race I tried to stay clean and just finish it and in the end it brought me the 9th place. Hoping for some better luck in Melbourne!"
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 Jeffrey Rietveld propel his car into 4th spot on the grid after a slightly disappointing lap, with Cyril Werdmuller following in 8th. The race start saw Rietveld losing several spots due to cars queing up into turn 1, whereas Werdmuller was able to jump into 5th. On lap 3, Rietveld's unfortunate race continued as the Dutchman lost his front while having contact with Enrico di Lorento.
The pace of Werdmuller continued promising, as it turned out that the main opponents had chosen a 2-stop strategy as opposed to Werdmuller's one stop. The Dutch failed to recapitulate on the opportunity, however, while suffering a spin in the tricky second section of the track. Eventually, Werdmuller finished 8th, closely followed by Rietveld in 9th, making his way up from all the way back of the grid.
World Championship boosted a significantly better start for the team, as Bono Huis qualified on the front row, just hundreths from pole-sitter Fredrik Nilsson, with Jaakko Mikkonen following in third. Technical problems for Nilsson saw Precision take a double-lead early in the race with Huis-Mikkonen. The team had virtually no problems in keeping formation all the way until the pit stops, whereafter David Greco managed to leapfrog Mikkonen after the pair had executed a couple of questionable moves.
At the end of the day, Bono Huis was able to dominate the race and maintain the gap to Greco, providing him a lights-to-flag victory, while leading every single lap and securing the race fastest lap on the final lap. Jaakko Mikkonen accompanied the result in an excellent third - a result from where the team can happily move forward towards preparing for Melbourne.
Team owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"Almost a perfect weekend to start into the season. The results in the World Championship were close to the maximum possible so I´m very happy about that. In the World Series technical issues and a bit of bad luck prevented us from scoring a better result, but the good thing we learned this weekend is, the pace to fight for the podium is there. I´m looking forward to Melbourne, a track where we had to take one of our worse results in 2010. Melbourne will also be the first real test of the teams to see who can prepare best for a race in just one week time."
Bono Huis (1st) commented:
"A great way to start the season, although we were quite lucky. Twister's speed really impressed me, especially Nilsson who was very fast in both Q1 and Q2. No doubt that he would have been fast in the race too but unfortunately for him he retired in the formation lap which basically put me on pole. First laps were quite difficult, no grip at all but it improved lap by lap and I was able to build a gap to Jaakko and David. I saw after my pitstop that the gap stayed around 4 seconds to P2 so I decided to save the car and make sure to finish the race. A nice victory and perfect start of the season, but we must improve for the next races because it would have been difficult to beat Nilsson."
Jaakko Mikkonen (3rd) commented:
"I didn't really perform at my best in the race but despite it I must say third place is ok. Season will be long and everything counts in the end. My dark moment came after pit stop when Greco passed me. I felt very unconfident with grip level and brakes and decided it's better to play it safe than be sorry."
Jeffrey Rietveld (9th) commented:
"Not really happy about the first race obviously. I was just hoping to get a top 5 in the first race and be conistent with finishes throughout the year. Qualifying was pretty tough as well, I wasn't even close to my pb in qualifying 2 but it was still good enough for a 4th place on the grid. After the first turn, I lost 6 places already because I was stuck behind Conti who made a mistake. In the next lap there was some huge lag which putted me in the rear of someone, and I also lost my front wing.
After I made my pitstop to repair the damage, I was 46 seconds behind Dominguez, so a decent finish was almost impossible. For the rest of the race I tried to stay clean and just finish it and in the end it brought me the 9th place. Hoping for some better luck in Melbourne!"
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
