The Kaspersky Motorsport crew of Alex Moiseev and Davide Rizzo had good cause to be optimistic prior to this afternoon’s second International GT Open Race at the Hungaroring.
In the morning, qualifying had gone very well, with Rizzo taking the AM category pole, setting the eighth fastest time overall. Therefore there was a realistic chance that an even better result than yesterday’s third place finish could be on the cards.
However, it was not to be: at the start, with our Italian driver at the wheel, the Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari F488 got squeezed by another competitor and in fact the two cars touched. We lost seven places and then one more at the chicane. Rizzo started to fight back, but the car was slowed with a technical problem, so the team decided bring him in to make the driver change slightly ahead of schedule.
Despite the problems, Moiseev seemed to have stepped up a gear from yesterday, running around one second per lap faster than in Saturday’s race. But by then, there was no way of making up any ground and fifth in the AM class was the result at the flag, after one hour of racing.
Alex Moiseev: « It’s been a complicated weekend, after looking set for a good result after taking pole in the AM category, we had engine issue and so had to settle for fifth place. It’s frustrating because I was feeling good in the car and our performance was improving all the time. Anyway, I have learned a lot and I am pleased with how it is going. My laps went well and I feel I am constantly making progress. We’re working well as a team – and this makes me feel very confident – we have the pace and we will come back stronger! »
Davide Rizzo: « It’s been a challenging weekend! At least we was able to finish the race, because it was important to complete all the laps to get as much data as possible. Now we will need to analyse what happened by carefully studying the telemetry. On the positive side, we’ve shown the performance is there and that we can be strong going forward. We just need to make sure we grab the points when the opportunities arise. This is racing and we just had a bit of bad luck but these things happen and we just have to accept them. »
The next round of the GT Open series takes place at the UK’s Silverstone circuit on 2 and 3 September.
Press release Kaspersky Motorsport
]]>
