Fia GT3: Strong performance at Silverstone remained unrewarded Puncture prevents possible podium finish for Fischer Racing

Strong performance at Silverstone remained unrewarded
Puncture prevents possible podium finish for Fischer Racing

Paderborn, 05.06.11 [FIA GT3-Europameisterschaft]
Fischer Racing showed a very strong, but eventually unrewarded performance at the British round of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone. In the first race of the second meeting of the season, a puncture prevented Fischer Racing from scoring a possible podium finish with the Ford GT driven by Markus Palttala (FIN) and Stéphane Lémeret (BEL). In the second race, Christoffer Nygaard (DNK) and Mikko Eskelinen (FIN) overcame a chaotic start and finished in 13th position.

Although the high-speed-track at Silverstone is not the best hunting ground for the Ford GT, Markus Palttala showed an impressive performance in the Qualifying for race one and qualified for second of the grid. At the start of the race, Palttala could defend his second position and was en route to a podium finish in the first part of the race, when a tire puncture prevented Palttala and teammate Lémeret from taking a good result. Christoffer Nygaard and Mikko Eskelinen finished 16th in the second Fischer Racing-Ford GT. „I had some troubles with the shifting,“ Eskelinen explained after the race. „That cost me a lot of time. After I got used to this problem, my lap times where pretty o.k. But then the gap to the cars in front of me was already too big and so we couldn’t fight for points.“

In Sunday’s second race, Christoffer Nygaard lost couple of places in the first corner, when he could avoid making contact with some other cars after a chaotic start und dropped to 20th position. The Dane started a chase and worked his way back to the Top10, teammate Mikko Eskelinen brought the Ford GT eventually to the finish in 14th position. For Markus Palttala and Stéphane Lémeret, the bad luck continued in the second race. Lémeret had to retire the Ford GT in the pit after he spun on the track.

„The start of the race was very chaotic“, Christoffer Nygaard said after the race. „A could avoid contact with some cars, which spun in front of me, but lost five, six places. Our race pace was o.k. and could retake some positions. But due to the places, which I lost in the first corner, a better result wasn’t possible today. We now hope to get a better „Balance of Performance“ for the next race, to be more competitive. It was obvious that weekend and also at the first round, that’s not very easy to for us during the races, compared to the brand new cars.“



With best regards from Paderborn

Info and Photos: Fischer Racing Press.