Phil Quaife was back out on track in the Porsche Supercup this weekend, supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship, at the fast but technical circuit of Magny Cours in France.
The short Friday practice session gave Quaife an opportunity to acclimatise himself to the new 2008 Supercup car, with more horsepower than 2007 and the ceramic brakes, posting 18th fastest ahead of qualifying the following day.
With 19th fastest time in qualifying, the British driver was set for the 10th row of the grid for the start of Sunday’s race. He said of the session, “I felt the competition had moved up another gear this year which made qualifying much closer. Just nine tenths of a second covered the top 20 which meant that it was essential to string together a near perfect lap. The track is usually quicker with more grip at the beginning of the session on the F1 rubber, which is when I pushed hard to get my best lap in and at this stage I had slotted the car into the top 10. I used my 2nd set of tyres too early and could not improve on the lap time. Unfortunately as the session progressed the track got faster and a number of drivers who used their 2nd set of tyres later posted their quickest time towards the end, which dropped me down the order”.
Quaife used the start to make up some positions and he quickly settled into the race. Over the course of the 14 laps Quaife made up positions to improve to 11th at the chequered flag. He reflected on his French race weekend, saying, “I made a pretty clean start and managed to gain a couple of positions off the line. It was then just a case of keeping my head down and staying out of trouble. It is such a strong competitive championship where anything can happen but I loved every minute of it! It was fantastic to be back competing in the Supercup championship again this weekend and I was pleased with a finish just outside the top 10 in such a competitive series. I would like to thank Jetstream for giving me the opportunity of returning to Supercup this weekend and giving me a fantastic car. It has certainly whetted my appetite to return to the series again in 2009”.
