The start of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza presented some nervous moments for Team rhino's Leipert Motorsport with some last minute driver changes and a mechanical problem causing both the teams Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 GT3 to finish the race prematurely in the pits.
The driver trio of car No. 7 - Olivier Tielemans (NL), Mika Vähämäki (FIN) and Niki Lanik (AUS) - had to abandon the car with a broken front splitter.
The week-end started positively for the team when the three drivers in the No 7 Gallardo LP600 all had good testing times; Vähämäki had to adjust to the new circuit as this was his first visit to the famous Italian track. He soon showed his early season testing promise with a top 4 position in practice, only 4 tenths from the top, a superb performance by the young Finn.
The team ran in to some problems with Bronze rated driver Arnoud Peyroles as he was simply too tall and so Austrian Niki Lanik stepped in for him on short notice. Team Manager Ingo Leipert explained: "The three registered drivers didn't harmonize from point of view of their total height. This is a big problem since the seat cannot be adjusted in the Lamborghini."
During qualifying on Sunday morning the No 7 Lamborghini qualified in 16th position, Mika was just over a second slower than the pole sitter but later investigation into the data of his quickest lap showed a loss of nearly 2 seconds in traffic, this was very frustrating for Mika and his first introduction to the challenges of racing amongst a large field of over 40 cars.
The race was started by Vähämäki as he had shown to be the fastest driver of the Rhino's energy drink backed car and quickly showed his race craft by making up positions and highlighting on the TV coverage with several overtaking moves giving his new sponsor, the Lapp Group some great exposure. However after half an hour Vähämäki had a problem and slowed to the pits, the front splitter had come away from the car making it un drivable and so the No 7 Team Rhino's car had to retire from the race.
After the race, Leipert said: "This result is quite annoying since the Mika showed good performance in the early stages of the race and we surely could have reached a podium place with the No. 7 car, a feeling shared with most of the other competitors.
The next race of the Blancpain Endurance Series takes place in Navarra, Spain, on 22nd May 2011.
