The aim was to finish in the points zone.
On the challenging Silverstone track theItalian team scored its fourth good result and managed to take its third International GT Open Championships class win of the season, proving itself to be the International GT Opens leader. At the domestic circuit, the two McLarens of the Italian team, directed by Mr. Roberto Costa the engineer, gave the English audience a great GTS class show full of battles and passes.
After taking the first and second row in GTS class qualifying 1, thanks to a second and third GTS chrono scored respectively by Pantano/Suzuki and Van Der Drift/Razia, the two pairs took the class lead and finished first and second, scoring the third double win of the season.
The cold shower came at the end of the competition, when race commissioners penalized the McLaren #66 with a 30" sanction for an infringement on the starting grid, which dropped the pair from 2nd to 5th in GTS It was really absurd. In over 30 years of professional activity, Ive never seen anything like that, because were talking about a tyre, not about wiring or mechanical amendments. Were regretful but despite being penalized with a 30" sanction, we managed to finish in the points zone, showing were improving time after time, says the technical director Costa.
In the final race Pantano/Suzuki made an exciting recovery. Starting from the 9th row, after setting the 18th best lap time in the overall result (13th in GTS), the Italian/Brazilian recovered 11 positions. In the last few laps Pantano accomplished the mission by leading the Mestrino-based squad to the 8th place in the overall standing, the 4th in GTS.
An unlucky Sunday for Razia/Van Der Drift who had to withdraw because of a technical issue.
It was a hard week end since the beginning, because of several electric issues. Suzukis accident on the first lap denied him the possibility to take part in the free practice sessions, so he was handicapped in qualifying -2. He raced without having any references and, once he found the right pace, the time had already run out.
Razia made a very good job by leading his McLaren to the third place in GTS. Unfortunately in race -1 Van Der Drift lost his power a little bit but he managed to finish second, anyway, behind his team mates. We have to praise Giorgio Pantano because in race-1 he made a great recovery. If he had run some more laps, he would have taken the win. Unfortunately Razia and Van Der Drift were stopped by an accelerator unit issue. Given the good results they got in qualifying and on Saturday, they could have driven an excellent race and raced for the podium, ends Costa Even the pit-stop guys made an excellent job. Pit-stops were perfect and the pit-stop time was even shorter than expected.
Bhai Tech has now 17 points. The team keeps the GTS leadership, taking a 12 points advantage over the main pursuer and is second in the constructors championship. Thanks to the win in race -1 and the fourth place, Giorgio Pantano and Rafael Suzuki jump up to the second place in the GTS drivers standing, being just one point behind the first. The second pair Luiz Razia/ Chris Van Der Drift is 6th.
The cars are on their way back to the Advanced Vehicle Science Centre in Mestrino, where they will be overhauled before taking part in the Spa race, scheduled for September 7th and 8th.
