Despite finally breaking the 4-year-long curse the team had in German soil last year, the Nürburgring was again not a kind venue for Faster Than Speed this season.
Giuseppe Marconi finished the World Championship race 15th after a race plagued with issues, while Chris de Jong retired after an incident.
In the World Championship, team-mates Chris de Jong and Giuseppe Marconi qualified in 19th and 21st places respectively, in a Q1 session which left both drivers unhappy with their laps.
Just like at Silverstone, Chris made another blistering start on soft tyres, gaining 5 places on the opening lap. He made several overtaking moves as he deployed a very aggressive pitstop strategy. However, a collision with Zuhaitz Cabo on lap 28 left both drivers out of the race prematurely.
Giuseppe Marconi raced with a different, more conservative strategy, opting to start on the hard tyre compound and visit the pits only twice during the race. While Giuseppe took part in several battles, some of them left extensive bodywork damage on his FTS-P13. Apart from compromising his pace, the damage caused a long pitstop as the crew tried, and ultimately failed, to repair the car. To make matters worse, a technical issue slowed him down during lap 30, costing him almost 20 seconds before he could recover racing speed and continue. Despite the GP being a highly frustrating endeavour for Giuseppe, he managed to end the streak of 3 retirements as he finished in 15th place.
Giuseppe Marconi (15th): "I don't like the track so much and I was also unhappy with the car's setup. Lost almost a full second in Qualifying and the car was very slippery in every turn for some reason. I decided to go for a conservative strategy after the last retirements, starting with hard tyres for the first stint. The pace wasn't as good as in testing even if I had some good battles. When I pitted on lap 24 I lost 9 seconds due to a damaged diffuser which couldn't be repaired, losing 2 positions. The car was then very difficult to drive, very nervous at the exit of turns. My possibilities to improve positions ended when the sim switched to desktop. Almost 30 seconds lost, although I was lucky not to crash. I saw the finish line but I'm not happy in the end because I'd like to finally finish the first stint of races without any damages. Hope I can do that in the next one."
In the World Series, Thomas Mundy retired due to an engine failure after showing a promising performance in the race, specially while lapping on soft tyres.
In the World Trophy, it was another very frustrating experience for the team. Carlos Hernandez retired early due to a technical problem, while a very similar issue denied Alberto De Juan from scoring points on his comeback race, with the technical drama happening as Alberto was on the last corner of the lap that would have allowed him to complete 90% distance and secure points.
After the opening 7 races of the season, FSR now heads into the long summer break until August. The eighth round, the Hungarian GP, will be hosted at the twisty Hungaroring venue, where FTS enjoyed starting from the WC's Pole Position in 2011. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Hungary!
Faster Than Speed
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