|
Peter Kox led
the Reiter Engineering-run Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT to
its first competitive FIA GT Championship finish in 2005 on
Sunday at Oschersleben, near Magdeburg in Germany.
The Dutchman, together with his German driving partner,
Norman Simon, brought the car home in 8th place - finishing
closely behind a Ferrari 550 Maranello, one of which (from
the same stable) holds the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Championship
titles.
QUALIFYING - LAMBORGHINI IMPROVE AS THE TRACK GETS HOTTER
"We didn't manage to get the best from our tyres this
morning." This was how Reiter Engineering team chief, Hans
Reiter, succinctly summed up his team's qualifying
performance at Oschersleben on Saturday.
After a disappointing morning session, when the Lamborghini
Murcielago R-GT finished in 11th position, the team
recovered well to set the 4th fastest time of the second
session. Peter Kox gave a strong performance in the
afternoon, despite having only done 15 laps around the track
previously, to set a fastest time of 1m 24:595. However, in
spite of the improvement, the track temperatures during the
afternoon were hotter and the majority of lap times from the
competitors were slower than those set in the faster,
morning session. There was therefore no movement in the
overall positions.
Hans Reiter continued: "We are still learning, but we are
improving with every session which is encouraging. We didn't
manage to get the tyre temperatures high enough this morning
and this affected our performance. I'm not so worried about
the race tomorrow as we know, from our practice sessions,
that the car works as well with tyres which are used as with
new and we will be able to double stint them.
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"It was disappointing today though as we really expected to
be able to start a few rows further forward than we are,"
Reiter concluded. Kox's time was an improvement of two
tenths of a second over his German team mate, Norman Simon,
running on the morning's used tyres.
RACE - FIRST FIA GT POINTS OF THE SEASON FOR THE LAMBORGHINI
MURCILAGO
On the tight and twisty track, the configuration of which
makes overtaking extremely difficult, the Michelin runners
today struggled to match the Pirelli-shod cars which claimed
the first six places. That, together with a spin on lap two
by Norman Simon, and a puncture later in the race,
effectively put the Lamborghini out of contention for a
higher placing today.
The small Reiter Engineering team, in only its 4th FIA GT
outing this year, never stopped fighting though. Peter Kox
attacked hard in the last quarter of the race taking back
one of the two laps lost earlier due to a puncture, and the
Lamborghini was one of the fastest cars on the track during
that time. In the last ten laps of the race he caught and
passed two Maseratis and two Ferraris.
A tired Peter Kox said after the race: "It was a shame about
the start because not only did that ruin the tyres, but it
dropped us right back. I think I had two good stints though
and I'm happy to finish and score a point. It's hard work
doing a double stint at this track because there is no
chance to rest at any point, it's very physically demanding
the whole
time."
Team Principal Hans Reiter commented: "I'm happy with our
performance towards the end of the race, when we were one of
the fastest cars on the track, and it's impressive that
Peter set his fastest lap of the race on lap 104 on tyres
which were well into the second part of a double stint. I
think to finish 8th, with the little dramas we had, is more
than I could have expected."
FIA GT Race Result - Oschersleben: 1st Babini/Biagi
Maserati MC12 121 laps; 2nd Bertolini/Wendlinger Maserati
MC12 -20.2s; 3rd Hezemans/Kumpen/Longin Corvette C5R -24.9s;
4th Lechner/Gounon Saleen S7 -58.1s, 5th Peter/ Zwaan/Zani
Maserati MC12 -1:15.2s; 6 thDeletraz/Piccini Ferrari 575 GTC
Evo 2005 -1 lap; 7th Lamy/Gardel Ferrari 550 Maranello -1
lap; 8th Kox/Simon Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT -1 lap
by Fiona Miller / Photos: John Brooks
|
|
|
|
