In spite of a fourth-place finish in the first Blancpain Endurance race of 2018 at Monza in Italy, the GRT Grasser Racing Team strongly feels being put at a disadvantage. After the achievements in the US with victory in the Daytona 24 Hours, the Blancpain Sprint Series win at Zolder and the 1-2 in the ADAC GT Masters season opener at Oschersleben, the team was full of confidence prior to the race at Monza. Hopes for yet another podium finish were boosted even more after the performance in practice. However, the organisers tried to deal the Austrian team’s hopes a severe blow. On Saturday evening around 19.30 hrs, prior to qualifying for Sunday’s three-hour race, team owner Gottfried Grasser received the announcement from series’ organisers SRO that all three GRT Grasser Lamborghinis had been given an additional 15 kg of handicap weight. Based on the BoP decision after the previous achievements, the cars already had 35 kg extra on board at the high-speed track.
« Now, we are being punished for our hard work during the winter and some 14 days of testing in preparation for the 2018 season. In order to get to grips with the new tyres, we racked up countless miles in testing and acquired and compared a huge amount of data. When this is now the ‘reward’ by the organisers in order to slowing us down, we will probably do without such expensive preparation in 2019 and rather go skiing to get ready for the 2019 season, » a very disappointed team owner Gottfried Grasser commented.
Despite an additional weight of 35 kg compared to 2017, the entire GRT Grasser team was even more determined to battle for success at Monza:
The #63 GRT Lamborghini Huracán with Andrea Caldarelli, Christian Engelhart and Mirko Bortolotti managed to work its way up from 13th on the grid to third place. With six minutes remaining, however, the podium position was lost to a Mercedes after a hard battle. « Given the circumstances with 15 kg of additional weight, we are happy with our result. Like this, we have shown that we haven’t lost our competitive spirit, notwithstanding this disadvantage, » top driver Mirko Bortolotti said.
The #82 GRT team with Rolf Ineichen, Phil Keen and Franck Perera did its utmost irrespective of the weight handicap. The team was classified 20th after three hours of tough duels. « Just after the start, a Bentley punted us off in the first chicane. We incurred a puncture due to a damaged bodywork piece and lost one lap in the pits, » Rolf Ineichen reported. « I can’t understand the organiser either when hard and expensive test efforts prior to the racing season are turned to nothing with sanctions like these. We most certainly will not continue like this for 2019 and invest such an amount of time and money in test sessions, » the Swiss is certain.
There was bad luck for the third GRT Grasser Lamborghini, the #19 entry with Ezequiel Perez Companc, Raffaelle Gianmaria and Marco Mapelli. The entire weekend at Monza didn’t go as planned. Also due to the 50 kg of extra weight, 37th place was all that could be achieved in qualifying. The race was over on lap 31 following a collision with an opponent, after which the #19 Lamborghini was withdrawn.
Next weekend, the second ADAC GT Masters round will take place at Most (Czech Republic). Here, GRT Grasser Racing also received notice of being slowed down by the organisers. Smaller restrictors and additional weight don’t leave much hope for really good results. Press release GRT Grasser – Wolfgang Koepp
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