MATADOR GT1 RACING WEEKEND
After
three hotly-contested opening rounds of the season, the FIA GT1 World
Championship heads to Slovakia for the Championship’ first visit to the
Slovakia Ring, under
the name of Matador GT1 Racing Weekend.
The circuit provided exciting and entertaining racing when staging the FIA GT3 European Championship in 2011.
Races in Nogaro (France), Zolder (Belgium) and Navarra (Spain) were each dominated by three different brands.
Belgian
Audi Club Team WRT Audi, Exim Bank Team China Porsche, and Hexis Racing
McLaren each claimed victories in the opening events of the campaign.
Following
a difficult start to the season, Hexis Racing took the honours two
weeks’ ago in Spain, claiming an impeccable one-two victory in
Saturday’s Qualifying Race before
pulling clear of the field to win Sunday’s Championship Race.
The
double race win for the No.1 Hexis Racing McLaren MP4-12C enabled Fred
Makowiecki (FRA) and Stef Dusseldorp (NLD) to claim the lead of the
drivers’ championship.
In
the sister car, Alvaro Parente (PRT) and Gregoire Demoustier (FRA) are
eighth after a solid weekend at Navarra which yielded second place in
the Qualifying Race and fourth
in the main event.
Parente,
like a number of fellow competitors, is relishing a step into the
unknown at Slovakia. “The team did a great job last weekend, we raised
our game quite a bit since
the first two rounds of the championship,” he said.
“Both
the team and McLaren GT are working very hard. It is normal that when
you put in that amount of effort you can work your way up to the top
end.
“I hope we can have a really good race in Slovakia. It is a nice challenge to get to know a new track.
“I know most of the tracks in Europe. You have to learn the details as you go, and try to be ready for Qualifying.”
Belgian
Audi Club Team WRT’s Stephane Ortelli has done his homework ahead of
the fourth round. He expects the Audis to rebound from a paltry return
of just one point for
10th place in the Championship Race at Navarra.
“I
think it is great for the FIA GT1 World Championship to be visiting new
tracks. I have been talking to my friend Yvan Muller about the circuit,
and he likes it a lot,
he really enjoyed it when he went with the FIA World Touring Car
Championship. I think it is good that we are going there,” Ortelli said.
“The
track is very fast, there are many fast corners, which will suit the
Audi R8 LMS ultra. We hope it will be the opposite of Navarra, which
although is a great track,
has slower longer corners where we suffered quite a lot. Hopefully we
will look a lot better in Slovakia.”
The
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Mercedes team, which finished second
and third in the main event, lead the teams’ standings heading to
Slovakia.
“There
is always a pressure when fighting for a championship, and that does
not change when you become the hunted rather than the hunter, when you
go from chasing and into
the lead," said ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport team manager Marc
Basseng (DEU).
The
team is looking for Mercedes to become the fourth brand to record a win
this season having been the closest challengers to the McLaren in
Navarra.
"It
has always been in my mind since Navarra that we led the teams’
standings last year before we had a couple of bad results and we dropped
out of contention, so we need
to remain focused, to gain good points," Basseng added.
Exim
Bank Team China Porsche driver Mike Parisy (FRA) took victory in Race
Two of the GT3 weekend last year so knows the circuit well and will be
looking to be a strong
contender next weekend.
“I
am quite confident for this fourth round, in Slovakia, as I won there
in the Mercedes in the FIA GT3 European Championship last season, so I
have a very good feeling
about this track,” he said.
“In the team everyone is working hard, to get the pit stops right and to have as good a set-up as we can.
“We
are still very much in the battle for the championship, we are very
strongly prepared. Me and Matt (Halliday) will try to get the very best
out of the car.”
Local
fans will no doubt follow closely the fortunes of Slovakia's Stefan
Rosina who will line up in the No.25 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini this
weekend at Slovakia Ring,
replacing Peter Kox. Rosina last raced in the FIA GT1 World
Championship in Brno in 2010.
Team
boss Hans Reiter is looking to put the disappointment of Navarra behind
him. “It is obvious what we have to learn from Navarra, our pit stops
were a disaster, and our
starts are not good enough. Those are the two key factors that we need
to work on before the event,” he said.
“In
Qualifying our pace was OK, maybe if Hexis had not had a problem with
the McLaren they might have had pole as well, but we were near the top,
which is a positive to
take.
“Our
starts are not that good, and we have done some testing to try and sort
this out because we are losing positions with them at the moment.”
The
Vita4One BMW continue to climb the team rankings helped by 22 points
for a strong showing in Navarra. The objective for the team according to
GT specialist Michael Bartels
(DEU) is to “be consistent and score regularly with both cars.” This
philosophy has taken Bartels to six team and four driver Championships.
The
Sunred Ford produced an improved performance in Spain – Matteo Cressoni
(ITA) and Milos Pavlovic (SRB) qualifying as high as eighth – before
failing to finish both races.
Slovakia may bring long-overdue redemption.
Similarly the AF Corse Ferrari squad will look to rediscover the form of Nogaro this weekend.
Valmon
Racing Team Russia’s Maxime Martin (BEL) will miss the event due to
other driving commitments but is looking to a return at the Algarve in
round five where the team
will take delivery of the new Aston Martin Vantage.
“I
will miss Slovakia which is a shame because we are starting to work
through the issues we have had with the car at the start of the season,”
he said.
“We
are due to have the new car for Algarve so hopefully we can continue to
make progress and move up the order when the new car comes.”
A modern circuit at the heart of Europe, Slovakia Ring is just 40km from the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.
The
twisting 5.92-kilometre track was first opened in 2008 during a phased
opening process, and will now host the FIA GT1 World Championship for
the first time in 2012 as
well as rounds of support races
How to follow the FIA GT1 World Championship:
Online:
Visit the new FIA GT1 World Championship website (www.gt1world.com) to watch both timing and streaming from live race events and keep
up to date with news, interviews, features and results during the week.
Youtube: Live streaming and our feature series GT1-LIFE will be available on the GT world Youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/gt1world. For viewers in Germany, please visit our German
live streaming service.
Television:
There
will be live television coverage of every round of the FIA GT1 World
Championship. For a full rundown of the TV channels visit
www.gt1world.com.
Video footage for editorial use available at WorldLink:
www.eurovision.net/worldlink.
Cameron Kelleher
Head of Communications
SRO Motorsports Group
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