First seasonal podium for Solaris Motorsport Corvette in Monza
The Z06R of the Italian team caught the second place just 9 tenths behind the Saturday Race winner. Satisfied Sini: "Finally!", Keilwitz: "I like this championship, I'd like to race in again!"
DOWNLOAD HI-RES PICTURE Credit: Photospeedy
Monza, Italy - It’s time to smile in Solars Motorsport after the race weekend in Monza, second round of the Italian GT Championship. On the high-speed track, the Corvette Z06R of the Notaresco-based team conquered with Francesco Sini and Daniel Keilwitz a solid first seasonal podium after a huge comeback, climbing on the second step of the podium in the Saturday Race. Good performances also in Race 2, with the Italian-German duo able to bring the Z06R in the sixth final place although a chaotic start, but a penalty due to a misunderstanding during the pit stop put back the American coupè to 8th position.
The Solaris Motorsport black Corvette showed a good feeling with Monza track from the beginning, sign that the work made on it has gave the expected results. P5 just 6 tenths from the best time in the free practice, Daniel Keilwitz confirmed the Top5 also in qualifying. A bit of anguish for the German driver, slowed by the traffic caused by the 39 cars grid, he could set a some tenths faster time with a clean lap. At the start of Race 1, the Corvette driven by Keilwitz with a great progression was third at first turn’s braking. Unfortunately, a contact exiting the first chicane costed to the American coupè a lot of positions, with the Corvette forced to pass on the gravel. But as a great champion, Daniel began a chase to the group in the head of the race, reaching and passing all the rivals lap by lap. The great comeback of the Z06R was continued with Francesco Sini, entered in the car during the mandatory pit stop. Sini kept to sign fast lap and pass the opponents, until the last lap, when with a typical Ringhio-style finish, gained the second place at the Lesmo 1 braking. The black Corvette conquered so the second step of the podium under the checkered flag, with Sini-Keilwitz far only 9 tenth to the winning Lamborghini.
The good Race 1 perfomance could be replicated also on Sunday, where the Corvette started from P8, 5 tenths far from the pole in a qualifying session that showed 15 cars in a second. The ideal lap could permitted to Sini to start on the first row, but once again the Corvette found traffic in its fast laps. At the start of Race 2, the Corvette took advantage to its engine and was fourth, but in the eventful first chicane, once again the Corvette was forced to loose some position, concluding the first lap in P11. As the same of the previous day, this time was Sini to start the difficult comeback, with all the cars very close in performances thanks to the Italian BOP. The reigning EuroV8 Series Champion was able to recover until the 8th place before the pit stop and the drivers change. Due to a misunderstanding, Keilwitz left the pit with a little anticipe, causing a 7 second penalty to the car. Back to the track, Keilwitz continued the comeback of the Corvette until the sixth place under the checkered flag, become in 8th after the penalty.
“I’m very happy to be back on the podium! – commented a satisfied Francesco Sini – I want to thank everyone, the guys of my team for their stunning job, who believed in us and gave us his support and also who criticized us, they gave us an extra power! It was an important weekend for us, I learned a lot about the car, I did the same lap times of Daniel’s. He is a strong mate, he’s the most competitive driver on the Corvette, he drove it by the 2010.” The performances shown in Monza convinced Ringhio: “I did some mistake in qualifying due to the traffic, it was a bummer because we could start from the first rows and we could get again the podium gained in Race 1. But it’s ok, I had fun and finally i begin to drive in the way I want. So now I have the possibility to give the 100% in the duels. Now we have to work for Imola, we have a lot of thing to do!”
“It was a really nice experience to race with Solaris Motorsport in the Italian gt Championship. The team is very nice and did a good Job. Unfortunately we did not reach our goal to win a race in Monza but with the second place in the first race we showed the potential of the team and car.” commented Keilwitz, abitual ADAC GT Master driver: “With the actual Balance of Performance, this was the maximum what we could reach. We have seen that the other cars nearly had the same speed on the straight than our Corvette, but they had more corner speed because of more downforce. Anyway, this was a good result and I definitely would like to do some more races in this championship and hopefully go for the win next time!”
“Finally, we showed we can be competitive yet. I’m real happy for the guys, this podium is for them and their work.” commented the Team Principal Roberto Sini – A bit of disappoint for Race 2: we could have done a similar results of Saturday but we showed however to have the right performances. With a so high level of drivers and team and with a BOP that allows all of us to be competitive, it was hard to do a big comeback. Daniel and Francesco did their best and we saw the results. I’m confident that in a track like Imola, historically not in favour to the Corvette, the BOP can find the right way to permit all of us to be competitive, in order to give another big show to all our fans.”
The next round of the Italian GT Championship is scheduled on 27th and 28th of May in Imola.
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=21119.msg113558#msg113558
