Nissan Motorsport has recorded a pair of Top 10 qualifying positions as well as an impressive charge through the field, during a busy day of action at the Melbourne 400.
Friday at the Australian Grand Prix consisted of qualifying for Race 5 and Race 6, with the day concluding with Race 3 of the Supercars Championship.
Michael Caruso has ended an impressive day around Albert Park with a hard charge through the field in today’s 130km opening event. The #23 Drive Racing entry started the race from 24th on the grid, following challenges in yesterday’s qualifying session. By the end of the race Caruso had moved up to a remarkable 13th. This result followed on from the day’s earlier sessions, which were to determine the grid for Saturday’s and Sunday’s races. Caruso qualified in P8 for Race 5 and then P7 for Race 6. The speed shown today is an exciting prospect for tomorrow, where the Drive Racing entry will start Race 4 from P6 on the grid.
It was a tough day for Rick Kelly, as the #15 Castrol Racing driver struggled with understeer across both qualifying and the afternoon’s race. The team tried a number of changes to the car, but they were unable to dial it into a sweet spot. Kelly showed good pace on new tyres before the high-speed understeer built up and washed off his speed. Caruso’s strong showing today will enable the crew to share data across both entries overnight.
Andre Heimgartner had a difficult start to the race in the #7 Plus Fitness Racing entry. The Nissan driver had too much pressure in his tyres at the start of the 25 lap event, and he was forced to work through a challenging opening stint. As one of the final runners to make their compulsory pit stop, Heimgartner briefly inherited the lead, before rejoining and crossing the line in 18th.
It was a mixed day for Simona De Silvestro, as the Swiss driver showed good speed in qualifying, but then suffered an early end to today’s race. The #78 Team Harvey Norman driver made contact with Jack Le Brocq, while the pair were battling with Richie Stanaway into turn fifteen. The damage to De Silvestro’s Altima forced her into the garage, where the team made the call to park it for the afternoon. The Team Harvey Norman driver’s best result from the day came in qualifying for tomorrow afternoon’s 130km race, De Silvestro ended the session in 18th. The result may even have been as high as 14th, if not for a small mistake into turn one.
RESULTS
Qualifying Race 5 Michael Caruso – #23 Drive Racing – P8 Andre Heimgartner – #7 Plus Fitness Racing – P15 Rick Kelly – #15 Castrol Racing – P16 Simona De Silvestro – #78 Team Harvey Norman – P18
Qualifying Race 6 Michael Caruso – #23 Drive Racing – P7 Andre Heimgartner – #7 Plus Fitness Racing – P16 Rick Kelly – #15 Castrol Racing – P17 Simona De Silvestro – #78 Team Harvey Norman – P19
Race 3 Michael Caruso – #23 Drive Racing – P13 Rick Kelly – #15 Castrol Racing – P17 Andre Heimgartner – #7 Plus Fitness Racing – P18 Simona De Silvestro – #78 Team Harvey Norman – DNF
MICHAEL CARUSO #23 DRIVE RACING : « We knew we had a better car than where we qualified. So we’ve got to be reasonably happy with that. I think we maximised what we could do, and everybody did a good job to allow that to happen. Fortunately, we start tomorrow in a better spot for both races. So I’m looking forward to using that speed to hopefully bring home a great result. »
RICK KELLY #15 CASTROL RACING : « The car was not very playful in the qualifying sessions this morning. In general, the set up was not quite there. So we just battled. We had a lot of understeer and I couldn’t get around it. We were pretty pacey on the first few laps on the tyres, but then the understeer comes in and we were done. The good thing is that Caruso’s car looked a lot better balanced, so we can take direction from that. »
ANDRE HEIMGARTNER #7 PLUS FITNESS RACING : « It was a bit of a tough one for us today. We made a mistake and set the tyre pressures too high, so we just went backwards massively during that first stint. Pretty disappointing, but it’s just the way that it is. We had good speed during the second half of the race, so hopefully we can have a better race tomorrow. »
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO #78 TEAM HARVEY NORMAN : « I think qualifying was a lot more positive. In the first qualifying, I made a little mistake and lost a few tenths. We were on track to be P14 in that session. So I’m much more happy with the car. We had reasonable pace during the race. We got into a battle early on and Stanaway was using a lot of road. We had an opening and unfortunately Le Brocq was in the corner when we made the move. So I feel sorry for Jack. But the car was okay at up until that point. So the team will fix the car overnight and we’ll go again. »
Press release Nissan Motorsport
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