The season quickly approaches its end, and while the championships have mostly been decided, Precision Motorsports continues to demonstrate high standards in FSR, winning the WC race again, this time with Jaakko Mikkonen.
World Trophy featured Pedro Melim and Emre Uysal as the lone representants. The championship being secured for Melim already, the Portuguese had probably not the best motivation on track, and finished eight after a less than stellar qualifying. Emre Uysal was again forced to retire after running in the top 10 for most of the race.
World Series qualifying provided somewhat peculiar results, as the young Jeffrey Rietveld took his first pole for the team, whilst championship candidates Cyril Werdmuller and Mattias Stahre qualified in lowly 12th and 13th places. After mistakes from Atze Kerkhof, Rietveld was able to open a gap to his opponents, which the Dutch needed for his two-stop strategy to execute well. After his second pti stop, Rietveld was yet running behind a 1-stopping David Dominguez, but new tires saw the Dutch fly past and eventually secure his first victory in impressive manner.
Mattias Stahre performed another Swedish recovery drive, highlighted by some nifty moves to eventually take third place and a strong hold of the championship title with two rounds left to go. Fred Gosling finished fifth, but Werdmuller had a less pleasant afternoon, crossing the finish line only as 10th. Either way, an excellent result for the team, considering that the main opponent in the championship fight, Dimitri De Matos, could ony manage a 12th place.
World Championship was bound to continue in less Huis-like domination, but despite starting from the pits, the Dutch managed to keep in the headlights. The man in the qualifying was, however, Bruno Marques, who placed himself comfortably on pole, with Precision's Jaakko Mikkonen and Rasmus Tali in P3 and P4. The coming-together between De Wit and Marques on lap 2 significantly easied the team's afternoon, as Tali and Mikkonen were able to carry on lonely in the front. After splitting strategies, it became soon evident that Mikkonen had gone through advantageous, as Rasmus Tali was stuck to fight slower cars and endured damage in a scramble with Mikko Puumalainen.
The recovery drive of Huis was meanwhile advancing, and although a couple of poor attempts from opponents to frustrate him, the soon to be crowned champion continued carving his way through the field majestetically. A last minute fight eventually developed between Huis and Tali, in which Huis was just able to pass the Estonian before the end. But the day was Jaakko Mikkonen's; the Finn secured his second victory on this track and in this season, and first one since China, which certainly silenced some critics regarding his performances. At the end of the day, only Dennis Hirrle managed to split the Precision cars from taking another straight 1-2-3.
The final round of the season takes place at Abu Dhabi in one week's time, and certainly, the team will keep its work ethics high to continue the winning streak.
Johannes Kunkel, team owner commented:
"This was definitely a good weekend for us, seeing Jeffrey grab his first win in FSR was great and I hope he will win many more races in the future. In the World Championship we simply had some luck this time, but this is a part of racing as well. Our last open goal, to win the World Series Drivers Championship is looking pretty good for this round and once this is done we can finally call it a day and get some much needed rest to recharge for the next season."
Jeffrey Rietveld (1st) commented:
"Well, I dont know what to say really. I practiced a bit more on qualifying fuel this time and it paid of with my first ever pole in FSR. I didn't know what to expect from the Twister cars but they seemed to be struggeling a bit. The start went well, kept 1st position for quite a long time. Then Atze made an overtaking attempt but failed and spun.
From that point it was just pushing to maintain the gap with the guys behind me. My first pitstop went great, though a few laps later the guys in front of me didn't pit. It scared me a bit but my pace seemed to be good enough to come back in second place. After the second stop I only had to pass Dominguez, which went flawlessly.
I'm really really happy with my first FSR win and I hope that there will be more wins in the future. And a shout out to my team for providing great support and setups!"
Mattias Stahre (1st) commented:
"Finally getting some points. After being busy with other things the last few races I finally got some much needed points this race. Clearly I'm still not as fast in qualifying as I was before but my race pace still seems to be good enough to win this title!
Looking at the circumstances for this race I must say it was one of the best races I did this year with going from 13th to 3rd.
Next up is Abu Dhabi and I simply have one single goal for that race. Take enough points over my competitors to clinch the title!"
Jaakko Mikkonen (1st) commented:
"Amazing to win again! I called for luck before the race and wow I doubt it's possible to get any luckier than this!
PB in qual, which was enough for third place. Then in race De Wit crashed Marques off and I had clear path to follow Rasmus.
I was actually going for two stops but accidentally forgot to pit on same lap as Rasmus. Then I continued one more lap thinking what should I do. I decided it's safer to switch to one stop. Later this proved to be a smart decision and I could finish the race on first place."
Bono Huis (3rd) commented:
"Very entertaining race. Obviously my race was compromised by a pitlane start, I lost 16 seconds because of that so to finish 13 seconds behind the winner is a good thing I guess. The first few laps were very lonely, but I soon caught traffic and after some crazy moves by Mallorqui we decided to pit early and hopefully jump them in the pits. Unfortunately that group was on a 1 stopper so I caught them again together with Malezic. I lost a lot of time thanks to crazy defending from Mallorqui again but eventually got through. After my 2nd pitstop I saw that P3 was possible so I was pushing 100% every lap. Passing Mikko wasn't that difficult because he had a lot older tyres but Rasmus had fresher tyres so it was a lot more difficult to pass him. In the end I managed after a great fight, and to get P3 with a pit lane start is a great result."
Rasmus Tali (4th) commented:
"Q: Not too bad not too good either.
R: Start went well, got into 3rd place and De Wit crashed himself and Bruno out, so I was 1st and managing engine for next stints. Jaakko was close behind and we pulled away from the rest of the pack which was nice because I was sure that Atze and Hirrle will do a 1 stopper. Everything went according to plan until I passed Mikko on lap 27, after which he had an oversteer moment and slammed into me, which almost made me crash into the barrier.
This was really frustrating as it also caused bad damage and I lost 0,3-4s every lap to my target lap times. The rest of the race was just full of pushing to have any chance for a reasonable result. I also decided to repair damage on my second pitstop which was totally the wrong decision as it cost me extra seconds in pit and the car was still rubbish.
At the final laps had really great battle with Bono but I was unable to keep him behind with this car, so I had to settle for 4th position.
Thanks again to the team and congrats to Jaakko for his win. See you in Abu Dhabi"
Precision Motorsports
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
World Trophy featured Pedro Melim and Emre Uysal as the lone representants. The championship being secured for Melim already, the Portuguese had probably not the best motivation on track, and finished eight after a less than stellar qualifying. Emre Uysal was again forced to retire after running in the top 10 for most of the race.
World Series qualifying provided somewhat peculiar results, as the young Jeffrey Rietveld took his first pole for the team, whilst championship candidates Cyril Werdmuller and Mattias Stahre qualified in lowly 12th and 13th places. After mistakes from Atze Kerkhof, Rietveld was able to open a gap to his opponents, which the Dutch needed for his two-stop strategy to execute well. After his second pti stop, Rietveld was yet running behind a 1-stopping David Dominguez, but new tires saw the Dutch fly past and eventually secure his first victory in impressive manner.
Mattias Stahre performed another Swedish recovery drive, highlighted by some nifty moves to eventually take third place and a strong hold of the championship title with two rounds left to go. Fred Gosling finished fifth, but Werdmuller had a less pleasant afternoon, crossing the finish line only as 10th. Either way, an excellent result for the team, considering that the main opponent in the championship fight, Dimitri De Matos, could ony manage a 12th place.
World Championship was bound to continue in less Huis-like domination, but despite starting from the pits, the Dutch managed to keep in the headlights. The man in the qualifying was, however, Bruno Marques, who placed himself comfortably on pole, with Precision's Jaakko Mikkonen and Rasmus Tali in P3 and P4. The coming-together between De Wit and Marques on lap 2 significantly easied the team's afternoon, as Tali and Mikkonen were able to carry on lonely in the front. After splitting strategies, it became soon evident that Mikkonen had gone through advantageous, as Rasmus Tali was stuck to fight slower cars and endured damage in a scramble with Mikko Puumalainen.
The recovery drive of Huis was meanwhile advancing, and although a couple of poor attempts from opponents to frustrate him, the soon to be crowned champion continued carving his way through the field majestetically. A last minute fight eventually developed between Huis and Tali, in which Huis was just able to pass the Estonian before the end. But the day was Jaakko Mikkonen's; the Finn secured his second victory on this track and in this season, and first one since China, which certainly silenced some critics regarding his performances. At the end of the day, only Dennis Hirrle managed to split the Precision cars from taking another straight 1-2-3.
The final round of the season takes place at Abu Dhabi in one week's time, and certainly, the team will keep its work ethics high to continue the winning streak.
Johannes Kunkel, team owner commented:
"This was definitely a good weekend for us, seeing Jeffrey grab his first win in FSR was great and I hope he will win many more races in the future. In the World Championship we simply had some luck this time, but this is a part of racing as well. Our last open goal, to win the World Series Drivers Championship is looking pretty good for this round and once this is done we can finally call it a day and get some much needed rest to recharge for the next season."
Jeffrey Rietveld (1st) commented:
"Well, I dont know what to say really. I practiced a bit more on qualifying fuel this time and it paid of with my first ever pole in FSR. I didn't know what to expect from the Twister cars but they seemed to be struggeling a bit. The start went well, kept 1st position for quite a long time. Then Atze made an overtaking attempt but failed and spun.
From that point it was just pushing to maintain the gap with the guys behind me. My first pitstop went great, though a few laps later the guys in front of me didn't pit. It scared me a bit but my pace seemed to be good enough to come back in second place. After the second stop I only had to pass Dominguez, which went flawlessly.
I'm really really happy with my first FSR win and I hope that there will be more wins in the future. And a shout out to my team for providing great support and setups!"
Mattias Stahre (1st) commented:
"Finally getting some points. After being busy with other things the last few races I finally got some much needed points this race. Clearly I'm still not as fast in qualifying as I was before but my race pace still seems to be good enough to win this title!
Looking at the circumstances for this race I must say it was one of the best races I did this year with going from 13th to 3rd.
Next up is Abu Dhabi and I simply have one single goal for that race. Take enough points over my competitors to clinch the title!"
Jaakko Mikkonen (1st) commented:
"Amazing to win again! I called for luck before the race and wow I doubt it's possible to get any luckier than this!
PB in qual, which was enough for third place. Then in race De Wit crashed Marques off and I had clear path to follow Rasmus.
I was actually going for two stops but accidentally forgot to pit on same lap as Rasmus. Then I continued one more lap thinking what should I do. I decided it's safer to switch to one stop. Later this proved to be a smart decision and I could finish the race on first place."
Bono Huis (3rd) commented:
"Very entertaining race. Obviously my race was compromised by a pitlane start, I lost 16 seconds because of that so to finish 13 seconds behind the winner is a good thing I guess. The first few laps were very lonely, but I soon caught traffic and after some crazy moves by Mallorqui we decided to pit early and hopefully jump them in the pits. Unfortunately that group was on a 1 stopper so I caught them again together with Malezic. I lost a lot of time thanks to crazy defending from Mallorqui again but eventually got through. After my 2nd pitstop I saw that P3 was possible so I was pushing 100% every lap. Passing Mikko wasn't that difficult because he had a lot older tyres but Rasmus had fresher tyres so it was a lot more difficult to pass him. In the end I managed after a great fight, and to get P3 with a pit lane start is a great result."
Rasmus Tali (4th) commented:
"Q: Not too bad not too good either.
R: Start went well, got into 3rd place and De Wit crashed himself and Bruno out, so I was 1st and managing engine for next stints. Jaakko was close behind and we pulled away from the rest of the pack which was nice because I was sure that Atze and Hirrle will do a 1 stopper. Everything went according to plan until I passed Mikko on lap 27, after which he had an oversteer moment and slammed into me, which almost made me crash into the barrier.
This was really frustrating as it also caused bad damage and I lost 0,3-4s every lap to my target lap times. The rest of the race was just full of pushing to have any chance for a reasonable result. I also decided to repair damage on my second pitstop which was totally the wrong decision as it cost me extra seconds in pit and the car was still rubbish.
At the final laps had really great battle with Bono but I was unable to keep him behind with this car, so I had to settle for 4th position.
Thanks again to the team and congrats to Jaakko for his win. See you in Abu Dhabi"
Precision Motorsports
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
