Tag: Rain

Report: Qualifying Misano

Schlegelmilch takes pole position in the wet. Colombo with best starting position in FORMULA class and big surprise by Alexander Geier.

Harald Schlegelmilch (LVA, HS Engineering) secured the best starting position for the Pirelli Grande Finale in qualifying on Saturday morning. In damp conditions, the OPEN class driver was in a class of his own in his World Series car. In the absence of the BOSS GP F1 Class, he set by far the fastest lap time of the final BOSS GP qualifying session of the year with 1:35.159.

With second place overall in qualifying, Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) took an important step towards the FORMULA class title. Although his main rival, Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio), came close to him towards the end of the half-hour session, Colombo defended himself with another improvement of his lap time.

Alexander Geier (AUT, Geier Racing) caused a sensation. The six-cylinder driver from the SUPER LIGHTS class qualified in fourth place overall and thus topped his previous best performance by far. With dry conditions forecast, can he defend himself against the armada of GP2 cars in the race?

Geier’s compatriot Michael Aberer (MA Motorsport) will start the race from row 3 together with Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International). Giancarlo Pedetti (ITA, Nannini Racing) and Paul O’Connell (IRE, HS Engineering) will start from row 4. As a rain specialist, O’Connell had expected a lot in the wet conditions. But the Irishman lost valuable track time after a spin and was only able to return to qualifying late in the session.

The eleventh race of the season with a distance of 20 minutes starts today at 14:35.

Photo: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP

Report: Brno Race 1

Jackermeier celebrates his premiere victory in tricky conditions, Colombo turns “pole” into victory in FORMULA class, SUPER LIGHTS triumph for Geier.

The weather gods had no mercy on the drivers of the BOSS GP Racing Series. A few minutes before the start of the first race, the heavens opened their floodgates. The race on the partly wet track thus became a challenge for the pilots in their Big Open Single Seaters.

BOSS GP F1 Class

Pole setter Thomas Jackermeier (GER, Top Speed), like his team mate Ingo Gerstl (AUT, Top Speed), was faced with a difficult decision in the Formula 1 car class due to the rain shower before the start of the race: keep dry tyres on or put on the Pirelli Cinturato wet weather tyres? Parts of the track were damp, others dry. Jackermeier and Gerstl both opted for the dry tyres on their cars. Jackermeier with his Toro Rosso STR3 with Ferrari V8 made ideal use of the pole position and started furiously into the race. Ingo Gerstl came into the pits after the warm-up lap and had to stop his Toro Rosso STR1 temporarily. A few minutes before the end of the race Gerstl drove back onto the track but promptly returned to the pits. Jackermeier managed the lead ideally, made no mistakes in the treacherous conditions and celebrated his first victory in the BOSS GP. 

2nd place for Ingo Gerstl (le.) behind debut winner Thomas Jackermeier (ri.)

BOSS GP FORMULA Class

All drivers in the FORMULA Class opted for the Pirelli P Zero dry tyres at the start of the race. The driving skills of the steering wheel acrobats were thus put to the test even more. Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) made ideal use of his first starting position and was able to pull away first in the drying conditions. Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) held back in the initially damp conditions. However, the experienced Italian put rival after rival to the sword and worked his way up to second place. In the final minutes there was a thrilling duel between Colombo and Ghiotto for the win, but Colombo managed to save the victory over the finish line. Francesco Malavasi (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) drove in second place for a long time, but after a hard fight on the start-finish straight he had to let his team boss and colleague Ghiotto pass. Salvatore de Plano (ITA, MM International) and Walter Steding (GER, Scuderia Palladio) rounded off the top-5 of this spectacular race in FORMULA class. Andreas Fiedler (GER, Fiedler Racing), who was classified in the front of the field in qualifying, came into the pits just before the end of the race and had to park his GP2 car early.

Close finish between Colombo (f.) and Ghiotto behind

BOSS GP SUPER LIGHTS Class

In the SUPER LIGHTS category of the six-cylinder cars, Alexander Geier (AUT, Geier Racing) secured the next victory ahead of Andreas Hasler (AUT, Hasler Motorsport). Geier, who started the race on slicks, took the lead from Hasler shortly after the start and eventually controlled the pace at the front. In the final sprint Hasler tried to close the gap to Geier once more. Ultimately in vain, Hasler drove home a safe second place in drying conditions.

Good race by young Austrian Geier in difficult track conditions

After the spectacle today, the fans can look forward to part 2 of the racing action on Sunday. The second and final race of the BOSS GP in Brno will take place tomorrow from 12:50 local time (livestream).

Photos: Angelo Poletto/BOSS GP

Report Race 1 Mugello

FORMULA: Martucci beats Ghiotto, Gerstl ahead of Ehninger in the OPEN class

The BOSS GP drivers have a lot to tell after this race. Of all things, it started to rain at the start of the warm-up lap on the 5.4-kilometre-long Mugello Circuit. To ensure a safe start to the race and to give the teams time to change to rain tyres, the race was stopped once again and started a few minutes later behind the Fanatec Safety Car. But not everyone switched from slicks to the Pirelli Cinturato rain tyres during the break. Nicolas Matile (MCO, Zig-Zag), Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Coloni) and Bruno Jarach (EST, Eesti Motorsport) took the risk, but their tyre choice turned out to be a mistake as soon as the race was started. At various points around the track it began to rain more heavily again. The changing conditions subsequently made it incredibly difficult for the drivers to find the right pace. But the BOSS GP drivers did an outstanding job and managed to keep their powerful Formula 1, Formula 2 and Auto GP cars on track.

Behind the Austrian Ingo Gerstl (winner of the OPEN class) in the Toro Rosso F1, Luca Martucci (ITA, MM International) and Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio) fought an epic battle for the victory in the FORMULA class. In lap 1 Ghiotto first passed Martucci. At mid-race, the action came to a head: After a few tentative attempts, Martucci made the decisive manoeuvre at over 300 km/h on the start-finish straight. Nearly there was contact. But the duel was not over yet, because now Luca had to be up front in difficult track conditions. Marco followed only a few metres behind and tried to pass Martucci once again. To show how close it was between Martucci and Ghiotto: The best lap time of the two was only 0.003 seconds separated (in favour of Ghiotto). But it was no longer enough for the championship leader, instead Martucci’s team had reason to cheer this time. It was the first victory ever for the tall Italian in the BOSS GP Racing Series, and what a victory that was!

Marc Faggionato (MCO, Zig-Zag) was able to follow the two Italians in their home race for a couple of laps. He finished in a strong third place. Andreas Fiedler (GER, Fiedler Racing) also delivered a surprisingly good race. The third in the championship in 2019 has bought a new Dallara GP2 and is using this season’s races as a test. Because his team had no rain tyres at hand, the German had to drive to his tent in the paddock and then start from pit lane. Relatively quickly he moved up to fifth place in his class, but the gap to the front was already large. Until the halfway point of the race, Walter Steding (GER, Scuderia Palladio) was on a good way to a fourth-place finish. But Steding lost ground in the second half of the race, and his position to compatriot Fiedler.

Armando Mangini (ITA, MM International) also drove impeccably, finishing sixth in his class behind Steding. Last year Mangini had announced his retirement. Today he proved that this was probably premature. Probably the hardest race had Salvatore de Plano (ITA, Coloni). He was the only one who stayed on dry tyres until the end of the race and therefore had no chance. It is probably only thanks to his driving qualities that he was able to finish the race safely.

A ten-minute warm-up will be held tomorrow morning from 10.20 a.m. The second race of the weekend start 14.30. Rain showers are predicted.

Photo: Roberto Piccinini/Actualfoto

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.