Another victorious weekend with Jack Keithley and Bono Huis at Silverstone.
World Series qualifying was once again competitive. A strong session saw Jack Keithley start from 2nd, followed by Peter Duivelaar in 4th. At the start pole sitter Jeffrey Rietveld was able to keep the lead despite a closely following Keithley. With Keithley on a 4-stop strategy, the Briton felt necessary to get past Rietveld early, but the first stint saw no real overtaking opportunities.
After Keithley's first pit stop on lap 10, Rietveld followed a lap later, but lost ground to Keithley after technical issues. More drama took place a lap later, when a slide from Fred Gosling caught Rietveld by surprise, resulting in major damage. This gave the cards back to Keithley, who now had to keep a strong pace to beat the 3-stopping cars.
After the half-point, it became clear that Keithley's only threat in the race would be his 3-stopping team-mate Duivelaar. The final stops saw Keithley emerge close on the back of Duivelaar. With fresher tires, there was no real fight for positon, as Keithley stormed past, and finish over the chequered flag with a second straight victory in style. Duivelaar made an excellent recovery after a few difficult rounds, finishing second and taking back second place in the championship led by Keithley. Cyril Werdmuller finished 7th after key overtakes in the closing stages.
World Championship provided an even tighter qualifying, and for the third time in row, Bono Huis was the man to take the pole, this time just slightly ahead of Rietveld in lap time. After the first corners Morgan Morand was able to pass Huis to take the temporary lead, but the defending champion soon defended to pull off a brave maneuver through Copse to re-take the lead. Further behind Jaakko Mikkonen had improved a couple of positions after qualifying 13th, but damage from contact with Patrick De Wit compromised the Finn's race further.
Huis and Morand carried out their own race for victory and after the first stops it became evident that Huis had decided to go for a 4 stopper against Morand's 3. This required Huis to set some blistering lap times in his remaining stints to challenge for the lead later on, and the Dutch responded. After the final pit stops, Huis was just running a couple of seconds behind Morand. With an intense battle carrying on for several laps, Huis was eventually able to take the lead after a brave outside pass into Stowe.
The final laps were mere cosmetics, as Huis cruised into victory, undefeated for 5 races in a row now. Mikkonen finished 9th after overtaking Eros Masciulli in the closing stages. The result kept Precision and Huis in a strong championship lead, as FSR goes into a 4 weeks break, returning back to Hungary at 14th and 15th of July.
Bono Huis commented:
"My lap in Q2 was very good and it was quite important to get pole position to make my strategy work. Unfortunately, I messed up the start and I immediately lost P1 to Morgan. We had an awesome and fair battle and when I was 2 seconds infront after the 1st stop, I thought I had the win in the bag already. I didn't expect Morgan to be on a 3 stopper so I was quite worried at some points but my pace improved and in the end we had another great battle. I had the advantage of fresher tyres so our strategy worked quite well. Really enjoyed this race!"
Jack Keithley commented:
"Coming off the back of winning in Canada, I was really confident going into this race which I really wanted to do well at being my home GP. At the start of the race I was pretty confident with our strategy, but I felt like Jeffrey was holding us up a little bit and I didnt have a chance to get by, so I decided to wait until the pitstops and that worked out very well for us as. Once I got in the lead and started running my own pace we pulled away from the other 4 stoppers, and when all the different stratagies had cycled all around we were looking very good and running just ahead of Peter on the alternate strategy and we brought the cars home for a 1-2 finish. Really happy to win my home GP, the team did a perfect job on the car and strategy and it was just a fantastic day."
Peter Duivelaar commented:
"After some disappointing results at Montreal and Monaco this was again a track I felt confident I could get a podium. It was interesting to see how the different strategies would work out, but I'm glad I went on a 3-stop strategy. I'm very happy with my 2nd place finish, and with Jack winning the race it was a perfect day for Precision Motorsports."
Team owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"Silverstone never dissapoints to provide fantastic races and with the results we got this weekend there is not much to complain about. Tyrewear was a quite crucial factor this weekend, and afterall making 1 extra stop turned out to be the right choice for Jack and Bono to win the races. Now we enjoy our break until Hungary to spend 2-3 weeks away from FSR on other activities before we will get back to work about a week before the race."
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 qualifying was once again competitive. A strong session saw Jack Keithley start from 2nd, followed by Peter Duivelaar in 4th. At the start pole sitter Jeffrey Rietveld was able to keep the lead despite a closely following Keithley. With Keithley on a 4-stop strategy, the Briton felt necessary to get past Rietveld early, but the first stint saw no real overtaking opportunities.
After Keithley's first pit stop on lap 10, Rietveld followed a lap later, but lost ground to Keithley after technical issues. More drama took place a lap later, when a slide from Fred Gosling caught Rietveld by surprise, resulting in major damage. This gave the cards back to Keithley, who now had to keep a strong pace to beat the 3-stopping cars.
After the half-point, it became clear that Keithley's only threat in the race would be his 3-stopping team-mate Duivelaar. The final stops saw Keithley emerge close on the back of Duivelaar. With fresher tires, there was no real fight for positon, as Keithley stormed past, and finish over the chequered flag with a second straight victory in style. Duivelaar made an excellent recovery after a few difficult rounds, finishing second and taking back second place in the championship led by Keithley. Cyril Werdmuller finished 7th after key overtakes in the closing stages.
World Championship provided an even tighter qualifying, and for the third time in row, Bono Huis was the man to take the pole, this time just slightly ahead of Rietveld in lap time. After the first corners Morgan Morand was able to pass Huis to take the temporary lead, but the defending champion soon defended to pull off a brave maneuver through Copse to re-take the lead. Further behind Jaakko Mikkonen had improved a couple of positions after qualifying 13th, but damage from contact with Patrick De Wit compromised the Finn's race further.
Huis and Morand carried out their own race for victory and after the first stops it became evident that Huis had decided to go for a 4 stopper against Morand's 3. This required Huis to set some blistering lap times in his remaining stints to challenge for the lead later on, and the Dutch responded. After the final pit stops, Huis was just running a couple of seconds behind Morand. With an intense battle carrying on for several laps, Huis was eventually able to take the lead after a brave outside pass into Stowe.
The final laps were mere cosmetics, as Huis cruised into victory, undefeated for 5 races in a row now. Mikkonen finished 9th after overtaking Eros Masciulli in the closing stages. The result kept Precision and Huis in a strong championship lead, as FSR goes into a 4 weeks break, returning back to Hungary at 14th and 15th of July.
Bono Huis commented:
"My lap in Q2 was very good and it was quite important to get pole position to make my strategy work. Unfortunately, I messed up the start and I immediately lost P1 to Morgan. We had an awesome and fair battle and when I was 2 seconds infront after the 1st stop, I thought I had the win in the bag already. I didn't expect Morgan to be on a 3 stopper so I was quite worried at some points but my pace improved and in the end we had another great battle. I had the advantage of fresher tyres so our strategy worked quite well. Really enjoyed this race!"
Jack Keithley commented:
"Coming off the back of winning in Canada, I was really confident going into this race which I really wanted to do well at being my home GP. At the start of the race I was pretty confident with our strategy, but I felt like Jeffrey was holding us up a little bit and I didnt have a chance to get by, so I decided to wait until the pitstops and that worked out very well for us as. Once I got in the lead and started running my own pace we pulled away from the other 4 stoppers, and when all the different stratagies had cycled all around we were looking very good and running just ahead of Peter on the alternate strategy and we brought the cars home for a 1-2 finish. Really happy to win my home GP, the team did a perfect job on the car and strategy and it was just a fantastic day."
Peter Duivelaar commented:
"After some disappointing results at Montreal and Monaco this was again a track I felt confident I could get a podium. It was interesting to see how the different strategies would work out, but I'm glad I went on a 3-stop strategy. I'm very happy with my 2nd place finish, and with Jack winning the race it was a perfect day for Precision Motorsports."
Team owner Johannes Kunkel commented:
"Silverstone never dissapoints to provide fantastic races and with the results we got this weekend there is not much to complain about. Tyrewear was a quite crucial factor this weekend, and afterall making 1 extra stop turned out to be the right choice for Jack and Bono to win the races. Now we enjoy our break until Hungary to spend 2-3 weeks away from FSR on other activities before we will get back to work about a week before the race."
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
