Faster Than Speed had a positive British GP as John-Eric Saxen drove yet another solid race at Silverstone to score its third 5th-place finish in the last four WC races.
Meanwhile, Carlos Hernandez and Kevin Clark scored points for the team in the WS and WT events respectively.
In the World Championship, John-Eric Saxen again found his way into the top-ten session as he set the 9th quickest time in Q1. In Q2, he drove a tidy strong lap to qualify his FTS-P12 in 7th position. Team-mate Giuseppe Marconi, meanwhile, qualified 19th.
With a 4-stopper strategy planned, John-Eric needed a strong getaway to make his strategy work. With quick reflexes off-the-line, he passed Masciulli, before pulling off what was an absolutely key pass on the 3-stopping Nilsson. The battle went on for several corners, with a wheel-to-wheel fight into Stowe before a surgical outside move out of Club corner to take 5th place.
John-Eric showed very solid pace throughout the race, even managing to leapfrog the 3-stopping duo of Vandoorne and Rietveld after their second stops to move up to 3rd for a long portion of the race. However, with the pair keeping their tyres on pace despite stopping one less time, it was impossible for John-Eric to emerge ahead after his last pitstop, rejoining the track in a 5th place he would keep until the checkered flag. With this result, John-Eric equalled the 5th places achieved at Shanghai and Montreal, in his fourth consecutive race in the points.
Giuseppe, meanwhile, was able to find his way through the midfield chaos on the Maggots & Beckets complex at the start. He had a scary moment on lap 3, when he suddenly found De Wit's stricken car across the racing line, and was lucky to escape without major damage despite making slight contact with the former FTS driver. Giuseppe drove a solid race, deploying a 3-stopper strategy with good pace to finish in 15th place, ending the race on the same lap as the winner for the first time this season.
John-Eric Saxen (5th): "A good weekend overall on a track I used to struggle on. In qualifying I did two good laps, nothing stellar, which was enough for 7th place on the grid.
In the race I had a good start, overtaking Masciulli off the line. Knowing that Nilsson was probably on a 3-stop strategy, I had passing him as early as possible in mind. I was able to get alongside him into Stowe and complete the pass in Club, which was the key move as it turned out.
After this, I could focus on catching the ATR (Management) cars in front. I made a slight error before my first pitstop, which cost some time, but after the second pitstops I was able to get past both ATR cars. At this point I wasn't yet aware that they were doing one less stop than me. With hindsight, I could perhaps have pushed a bit more at this stage. After my final stop, the gap to Rietveld ahead was over 10 seconds, which meant I could cruise to finish in 5th place.
Overall this was one of the best weekends I had in the last couple of years in terms of absolute race pace. This is an encouraging sign that a few podiums might be at hands if the circumstances fall together later in the season."
Giuseppe Marconi (15th): "Congratulations to John-Eric for his third 5th position of the season, and thanks to Mikko (Puumalainen) for his congratulations. Very fair driver, both on and outside the track. After a long time I returned to finishing in the lead lap today. Someone else on track, however, braked when I was in his slipstream."
In the World Series, Carlos Hernandez was very unfortunate to be collected by Brackhahn, whose car was out of control at the start. After a very long pitstop for repairs, Carlos rejoined the track, only to be inmediately lapped by the entire field. Despite having noone in sight for the remainder of the race, Carlos pushed to the checkered flag, scoring points by finishing 19th. Danny Lubbers unfortunately had to retire from the race after being struck by technical issues.
In the World Trophy, Kevin Clark took part in the Grid 2 race. While he had a few issues that didn't allow him to go for victory, he finished the race in 3rd place, rescuing some championship points.
After the well deserved 4-week break, Faster Than Speed will be heading to the twisty Hungaroring, for the seventh round of the season. In Qualifying for last year's WC Hungarian GP, Patrick De Wit placed FTS on Pole Position. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Hungary!
Faster Than Speed
Press Release
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