Precision Motorsports left Monaco with a double victory in the pocket.
World Series
A somewhat difficult qualifying session ended in third place for championship leader Martin Gosbee as Rob van Starkenburg slotted in 7th place after some technical issues. At the race start a scary incident between van Starkenburg, Gosbee and Leppälä resulted in Gosbee's car flipping upside down and subject to damage from multiple cars, which unfortunately ended the Brits promising race.
Using an unconventional 3-stop strategy, van Starkenburg was able to progress as the race moved forward, despite a setback involving an incident with Zoltan Csuti. After a couple of retirements, van Starkenburg could cruise to finish in third place - a result which meant the Dutch would now take the championship lead by 5 points over Martin Gosbee. Cyril Werdmuller took fourth place for GT Omega, finishing in a season best, as did Nick Rowland in fifth place after a steady performance.
World Championship
In World Championship Bono Huis returned back to attempt for his 4th consecutive victory at Monaco. A solid but not stunning qualifying session saw Huis take pole by two tenths ahead of his team-mate Ivar Kalamees and GT Omega's Jack Keithley; all three drivers had opted for the softer compound. After a clean race start, it soon became clear that the Precision drivers were mainly racing Morgan Morand, who had opted to qualify on the harder compound and was driving in 7th place.
After setting a number of qualifying laps in row Huis was eventually able to pit for a set of hard tires and hold his net position against Morand by just coming out ahead of the Frenchman. This now guaranteed Huis a strong advantage for the remaining race, having only one pit stop left to make. Meanwhile Ivar Kalamees had shadowed Huis' strategy and was also hunting for the position of Morand. Further behind Keithley's well started race ended in tears as the GT Omega car made contact with the harbour walls on lap 32. The same faith stuck Martin Gosbee a couple of laps later, as the Briton clipped a chicane slightly too much with an already damaged car.
After the final pit stops had taken place, the team was heading towards a strong 1-2 finish due to Kalamees emerging ahead of Morand. No positions were changed despite closing attempts from Morand with a soft compound on the final stint. The result saw Bono and Precision take the fourth victory in row at Monaco and Bono taking his 36th win of career, which increased the Dutchman's championship lead to 20 points over Morgan Morand.
The following race will take place at the semi-street circuit of Montreal in a week's time.
Bono Huis commented:
"FOUR IN A ROW! Really awesome to win here again, on my favourite track. Qualifying went very well, came close to my PB and got pole. We saw that Morand started on hards so it would be important to do a very good first stint. After my pitstop it was very very close but we came out just infront. After that it was quite simple, just bring the car home and we did it. The car was perfect, strategy was perfect. A great result for the team too with Kalimero finishing 2nd."
Ivar Kalamees commented:
"In both of the qualis I was considerably off my PBs. It was the best chance so far this season to grab the pole, but Q2 lap in the end was quite poor, enough for P2 though, just about.
The race start was safe and clean for me. The objective of the race was to finish without damage. In the first stint with the worn softs from quali I struggled a bit and took it very cautiously as the car was more nervous than I would have liked it to be. After my first pitstop I came out behind Morand and started cruising behind him, saving my tires for later in the stint. In the 3rd stint I again cruised behind Morand until he pitted and then used my tires up. I was fairly confident that he can't overtake me in the last stint with worn softs and so it was.
Grats to Bono for his 4th Monaco win. Very good result for the team and myself. Thanks to Ondrej for awesome strategy and setups."
Jack Keithley commented:
"Incredibly frustrated and dissapointed to crash out the way I did.
Gotta thank the team for the awesome car, really was a peach - unfortunaly got hit at the rear in T1 on lap 1 and was fighting a loose rear end from that moment on and was having to push really hard to keep up with Ivar which sucked as when the tyres got towards the end of the stint it was just awful.
Once we got the strategy clear I knew i would have to push like mad to keep ahead of Morgan late on and sadly pushed it too heard through nouvelle chicane and got my sidepod ripped by the Invisible barrier which killed the engine instantly."
Team Owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"A great result in the World Championship. Bono and Ivar did a great job all weekend securing the frontrow in Q2, from then on it was just about not making mistakes and getting it to the finish line. After everyone had done the first round of pitstops we were very sure we can score our first double here. This is definitely one of the most special results we have scored over the past years. Also Bono scoring his 4th victory in a row in Monaco is going to be a record to stand for a long time. Very dissapointing what happened to Jack and Martin, but that´s Monaco, there is no room for error."
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
A somewhat difficult qualifying session ended in third place for championship leader Martin Gosbee as Rob van Starkenburg slotted in 7th place after some technical issues. At the race start a scary incident between van Starkenburg, Gosbee and Leppälä resulted in Gosbee's car flipping upside down and subject to damage from multiple cars, which unfortunately ended the Brits promising race.
Using an unconventional 3-stop strategy, van Starkenburg was able to progress as the race moved forward, despite a setback involving an incident with Zoltan Csuti. After a couple of retirements, van Starkenburg could cruise to finish in third place - a result which meant the Dutch would now take the championship lead by 5 points over Martin Gosbee. Cyril Werdmuller took fourth place for GT Omega, finishing in a season best, as did Nick Rowland in fifth place after a steady performance.
World Championship
In World Championship Bono Huis returned back to attempt for his 4th consecutive victory at Monaco. A solid but not stunning qualifying session saw Huis take pole by two tenths ahead of his team-mate Ivar Kalamees and GT Omega's Jack Keithley; all three drivers had opted for the softer compound. After a clean race start, it soon became clear that the Precision drivers were mainly racing Morgan Morand, who had opted to qualify on the harder compound and was driving in 7th place.
After setting a number of qualifying laps in row Huis was eventually able to pit for a set of hard tires and hold his net position against Morand by just coming out ahead of the Frenchman. This now guaranteed Huis a strong advantage for the remaining race, having only one pit stop left to make. Meanwhile Ivar Kalamees had shadowed Huis' strategy and was also hunting for the position of Morand. Further behind Keithley's well started race ended in tears as the GT Omega car made contact with the harbour walls on lap 32. The same faith stuck Martin Gosbee a couple of laps later, as the Briton clipped a chicane slightly too much with an already damaged car.
After the final pit stops had taken place, the team was heading towards a strong 1-2 finish due to Kalamees emerging ahead of Morand. No positions were changed despite closing attempts from Morand with a soft compound on the final stint. The result saw Bono and Precision take the fourth victory in row at Monaco and Bono taking his 36th win of career, which increased the Dutchman's championship lead to 20 points over Morgan Morand.
The following race will take place at the semi-street circuit of Montreal in a week's time.
Bono Huis commented:
"FOUR IN A ROW! Really awesome to win here again, on my favourite track. Qualifying went very well, came close to my PB and got pole. We saw that Morand started on hards so it would be important to do a very good first stint. After my pitstop it was very very close but we came out just infront. After that it was quite simple, just bring the car home and we did it. The car was perfect, strategy was perfect. A great result for the team too with Kalimero finishing 2nd."
Ivar Kalamees commented:
"In both of the qualis I was considerably off my PBs. It was the best chance so far this season to grab the pole, but Q2 lap in the end was quite poor, enough for P2 though, just about.
The race start was safe and clean for me. The objective of the race was to finish without damage. In the first stint with the worn softs from quali I struggled a bit and took it very cautiously as the car was more nervous than I would have liked it to be. After my first pitstop I came out behind Morand and started cruising behind him, saving my tires for later in the stint. In the 3rd stint I again cruised behind Morand until he pitted and then used my tires up. I was fairly confident that he can't overtake me in the last stint with worn softs and so it was.
Grats to Bono for his 4th Monaco win. Very good result for the team and myself. Thanks to Ondrej for awesome strategy and setups."
Jack Keithley commented:
"Incredibly frustrated and dissapointed to crash out the way I did.
Gotta thank the team for the awesome car, really was a peach - unfortunaly got hit at the rear in T1 on lap 1 and was fighting a loose rear end from that moment on and was having to push really hard to keep up with Ivar which sucked as when the tyres got towards the end of the stint it was just awful.
Once we got the strategy clear I knew i would have to push like mad to keep ahead of Morgan late on and sadly pushed it too heard through nouvelle chicane and got my sidepod ripped by the Invisible barrier which killed the engine instantly."
Team Owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"A great result in the World Championship. Bono and Ivar did a great job all weekend securing the frontrow in Q2, from then on it was just about not making mistakes and getting it to the finish line. After everyone had done the first round of pitstops we were very sure we can score our first double here. This is definitely one of the most special results we have scored over the past years. Also Bono scoring his 4th victory in a row in Monaco is going to be a record to stand for a long time. Very dissapointing what happened to Jack and Martin, but that´s Monaco, there is no room for error."
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
