Tag: Masaryk Racing

Report Race 2 Brno

Walter Steding (Dallara GP2)

Big surprise in the Sunday race: Double victory for Scuderia Palladio.

Although it was raining overnight, the track mostly dried up until the second BOSS GP race at the Masaryk Racing Days was started. As a result, all the drivers went onto the track on Pirelli P Zero dry tyres. Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) got a bad start from row 1, but he defended his class lead and followed Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) on the first meters. Right behind him Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) managed to overtake Roman Hoffmann (AUT, Hoffmann Racing) right on lap 1, just like he did yesterday.

Hoffmann had to defend himself against Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Coloni) and Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing) which were pushing from behind. On lap 3 De Plano and Fiedler collided in turn 1. While de Plano was able to continue his race almost undamaged, Fiedler’s GP2 Dallara was visibly damaged. De Plano finished the race in 5th place, Fiedler behind Christian Ferstl (AUT, Ferstl Racing) still in 7th place.

The situation came to a head at the front when the overall leader Gerstl steered his Toro Rosso Formula 1 into pit lane. An overheated engine forced the winner of all previous season races to make a stopover. Marco Ghiotto thus took the overall lead in the race, which he did not give up until the checkered flag.

In the meantime, Chris Höher (AUT, Top Speed) also mixed up the field. However, like yesterday he had to park his car in the pits early. Meanwhile, Ghiotto’s teammate Walter Steding (DEU) caused a sensation. During the middle of the race he passed Hoffmann for third place. The Austrian defended himself hard, but that was not enough. A few laps later Martucci was also overtaken by Steding in the penultimate corner. For Steding, second place in today’s race was the first podium since his most successful racing season in 2015. For Marco Ghiotto’s Scuderia Palladio it was also the first one-two victory in the team’s history in BOSS GP.

For defending champion Ghiotto the overall standings after 6 of 12 races look very promising. Rival Luca Martucci is already 30 points behind. Walter Steding, who is only one point ahead of Roman Hoffmann, now follows in third place.

You can watch BOSS GP in race action again at the Cuvee Sensorium Grand Prix in Assen in three weeks’ time.

Photo: Dirk Hartung

Report: Qualifying Brno

Ingo Gerstl flys by in his Toro Rosso STR 1 in 2019 Brno Qualifying

First row for the Top Speed drivers Gerstl and Höher.

Qualifying for races 9 and 10 of the BOSS GP 2019 was held at 11 degrees outside temperature and in drizzle. At least the choice of tyres was easy: all the drivers went for the Pirelli Cinturato rain tyre. Despite the difficult weather conditions the BOSS GP pilots did a good job keeping their racing cars on the slippery track.

As expected, Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed) in Toro Rosso STR1 took another pole position for the two races in Brno. Next to him Christopher Höher (AUT, Top Speed) starts from row 1 in the best FORMULA car.

Despite a spin at the beginning of Q2 Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) got into the right rhythm. With position 3 he starts one place ahead of rival Alessandro Bracalente (ITA, Speed Center). Bracalente had to deal with less driving time in Q1 for yesterday’s top 5. Although the conditions in both sessions remained the same, the drivers from Q2 were able to rewind significantly more laps. In the rain this is usually an advantage.

From row 3 the reigning champion Florian Schnitzenbaumer (DEU, Top Speed) and Philippe Haezebrouck (FRA, Speed Center) will start the races. Haezebrouck finished the session with an even faster time, but it was cancelled due to the disregard of a yellow flag. The same happened to four other pilots.

Last year’s winner Marc Faggionato (MCO, Zig-Zag) ended up eighth behind Andreas Fiedler (DEU, Fiedler Racing), Thomas Jakoubek (AUT, Top Speed) in ninth place despite little rain experience, Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) in 10th place overall.

Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag) and Gianluca Ripoli (ITA, MM International) starting from row 6. Walter Steding (DEU, Inter Europol), who rolled out with a defect shortly before the end of qualifying, and Christian Eicke (SUI, Speed Center) will start from row 7. Teammate Peter Göllner (SUI, Speed Center) missed the qualifying session, but can start in the races.

The first race over 20 minutes starts today at 14:50 on Saturday.