Triumph row continues at Spa

The weekend at Spa brought little change in the FSR pecking order, as Precision scored a maximum result in terms of victories in all series.

World Series provided a mixed performance in terms of qualifying. Cyril Werdmuller set the fastest lap to take his first ever pole, but starting eight, Mattias Stahre decided it was wiser to save his bullets for the race. In the race the roles were reversed, as Werdmuller fell back due to launch control issues and Stahre was able to climb into P2. A strategical fight between the Swede and Stefan Kanitz ended in the victory of Stahre, who yet had to pass a one-stopping Dimitri De Matos in order to fully enjoy his champagne. With 5 laps to go the move took place, ensuring the Swede his first victory since Istanbul, tailed by Werdmuller in 4th and Gosling in 6th. The result meant that the championship lead once again swapped between Stahre and Werdmuller.

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In World Trophy the team proved to be on the pace in the qualifying, where Allar Foht managed to break the 1.44 mark and championship leader Pedro Melim completed the front row. After Emre Uysal's early retirement bad luck continued to follow Melim, whose involvement in incident with Martin Gosbee resulted in a second straight retirement. Meanwhile Foht kept increasing his lead to countryman Raino Rıım and eventually nothing could stop the Estonian to take his second win of the season, by a 46-second margin. The result strengthened Precision's lead in the constructors championship while Foht climbed to second in the drivers championship.


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World Championship saw Bono Huis already finding extra nitro in qualifying, as the Dutch pulled up a virtually unbeatable 1:43.3. This time, second qualified Dennis Hirrle made his passing move stand in the opening lap, but Huis was able to regain the lead 4 laps later. Further down the field Ronny Hähnel and Rasmus Tali worked together catching the pack after pit lane starts and an early-pitting Jaakko Mikkonen kept improving his position. In the midpart the 1-stop strategy of Hirrle raised some questions, but the margin of Huis was safe enough to grant him keeping the lead after his second pit stop.


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The final laps provided drama as Mikkonen, racing for his first podium in a while, decided to let Puumalainen past to avoid penalty from earlier contact. Hähnel-Tali had meanwhile moved in procession and managed to catch Mathieu Prèvot, who after a fishy move kept his lead until the final corner, which saw Hähnel fly past him into sixth place. At the end of the day, Bono Huis took Precision its sixth straight victory in WC. Due to absence of Bruno Marques, the result meant that the championship would be on the table for Huis for the first time in the next race.


After an intense two weeks the following event will take place at Monza, Italy, on September 4th - 5th, being the fifth last of the season. Until then, adios!



Ondrej Kuncman, Precision Motorsports team manager commented:

"Truly delighted with the results. All of our WC drivers drove stunningly and had Rasmus and Ronny not started from pits who knows what would have been possible. With some luck Bono can secure the championship already in Monza, but I am sure Twister will be doing their very best to end our winning streak. Mattias and Allar performed brilliantly as well. With just 1 week of testing for this race, our teamwork has yet again proved to be brilliant as Spa shouldn't suit us very well. Lastly I would like to apologize for actions of Uysal in WT, we will make sure nothing like this happens again."



Bono Huis (1st) commented:
"Great race again for me on a track which shouldn't suit my driving style really. The qualifying was perfect again, did a PB in the first lap and was good enough for my 7th pole of the season. Pole is maybe worse than 2nd place at Spa, especially with this year's slipstream, so Dennis could easily pass me in Les Combes. I decided to stay behind him for a couple of laps, save boost, and then a few laps later I attacked and passed him, used the saved boost to get a comfortable gap and it worked.
This race was very similair to Hungary with Dennis again on 1 less stop than me, so I had to pass him ontrack to win. Obviously he had very old tyres so overtaking wasn't that difficult, and then I had to make a gap to Dennis so I could react when he made his stop. So when he made his pitstop I pitted a lap later and came out quite comfortably in front. In the last lap there was a scary moment with a tyre in Eau Rouge, could have easily been DNF so I was a bit lucky, but managed to take it home and took my 6th win of the season."


Jaakko Mikkonen (4th) commented:
"Qualification was poor as usual.
In the first stint I was stuck behind slower cars. I pitted early to have some clear air, drove the second stint on fifth place which was ok place to be. I had some help from other drivers.
On third stint I tried to pass Mikko Puumalainen, but made an estimation error and drifted towards him under braking for turn 5. We both went off the track, me gaining the third place and driving ahead of Mikko the following laps.
I knew I had probably done a mistake so I waited for Mikko, so he can re-pass me on the final lap and have the third place."


Ronny Hähnel (6th) commented:
"That was really the greatest race I've ever had! Rasmus and me were clearly the fastest cars on the tracks especially on the last stint, even with old rubbers because of our 1-stop strategy.
Both of us ran through the field and could even almost close the gap to the front runners. We have had some nice fights with the field and especially the last lap was stunning!
Thanks to Rasmus for this great race and congrats to Bono and the others on the podium or rather "to all who could manage to end this race"


Rasmus Tali (8th) commented:
"One of the hardest and most interesting races of my career.
Me and Ronny started from pits and had to work together for the whole 44 laps to get any result out of this race. The most difficult thing was to keep the distance between us as close as possible while pushing every lap. After some 15 laps we also had to fight with other cars on fresher rubber wich wasn't easy at all.
When early stoppers started to close up on us Ronny was in leader role and I was behined saving fuel, so I had to block cars coming from behind while not hitting Ronny. On straights I was as close to him as possible to get as much draft as possible and we were almost as close to each other in corners.
The final lap was also interesting as we caught up with Prevot, but I had used too much fuel so I had to drive safely that lap and I think it cost me 2 positions so I finished 8th.
I am glad we did great tandem with Ronny and that allowed us to close the gap to the leaders and walk away with some points. Also congrats to team for great result and great work again."


Mattias Stahre (1st) commented:
"Finally back to top! This turned out to be a great race with really all the things I could think of for a good race.
Starting 8th is always quite difficult but I had some luck on my side and could take a few places in the first turn as well as some nice overtaking on the track.
The second half of the race then became all about strategy and when to push and who had pace enough to finish first. With some thinking and raw pace I could get to the first spot and in the end it really felt like a win that I had to work really hard for.
On a more general note the last few races during the summer has been quite difficult for me but it seems like I´m back on top again and for sure ready to fight in these last races for the title!"


Allar Foht (1st) commented:
"A very good weekend for Precision Motorsports in all categories. Need to thank all teammembers for an awesome job with setup making.
My race was just perfect in any way. Got pole in qualification and also had a great start where I started immediately to increase the gap to the others.
Later it was a very lonely race and I was just focusing on bringing car home. Very pleased with the result, looking forward to race in Monza."




Precision Motorsports
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
 

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