Nissan Motorsport has recorded a competitive Top 10 finish to end the weekend on a high at the Coates Hire Melbourne 400.
Michael Caruso has claimed an 8th placed result in this afternoon’s 70km event around Albert Park, which concluded the second round of the Championship. The #23 Drive Racing driver continued his run of strong qualifying results to start today’s race from 8th on the grid. Caruso reached the flag after several on-track battles, going on to record Drive Racing’s equal-best result for 2018. The consistent speed shown across the weekend offers positives signs for the next round of the Championship in Tasmania.
Andre Heimgartner finished a tough weekend with a season-best 14th placed result in the #7 Plus Fitness Racing entry. The weekend threw everything at the Nissan newbie, with Heimgartner showing great maturity to make a number of exciting overtakes in challenging conditions. While still coming to grips with the Altima, Heimgartner is looking forward to the unique layout that Symmons Plains provides in a fortnight.
Simona De Silvestro recorded her best result for the weekend today with a 16th placed finish in the #78 Team Harvey Norman Nissan. Starting from 19th on the grid, the Swiss driver made a great start, before some opening lap chaos dropped her back down the order. Forced to battle her way to the flag, De Silvestro now heads into the next round of the Championship confident her growing partnership with her engineer, Chris Stuckey, will improve the Altimas speed even further.
Rick Kelly’s weekend was cut short following an incident early in today’s race. The #15 Castrol Racing entry arrived on the scene of someone else’s accident, suffering suspension damage after contact with James Courtney. The disappointing end to the race overshadows the significant gains made by the Castrol Racing crew over the weekend. Kelly now heads to the next round of the Championship optimistic for a more consistent showing.
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship next heads to Symmons Plains for the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint, 6-8 April.
RACE 6 RESULT: Michael Caruso – #23 Drive Racing – P8 Andre Heimgartner – #7 Plus Fitness Racing – P14 Simona De Silvestro – #78 Team Harvey Norman – P16 Rick Kelly – #15 Castrol Racing – DNF
MICHAEL CARUSO #23 DRIVE RACING “I think overall in the big scheme of things we had good car speed despite the end result not being what we wanted. We’re further forward than we were in Adelaide, so we’ll aim to keep that up. Looking forward to heading to Tassie next. Symmons Plains is a well supported event by the locals, so hopefully we can put on a good show.”
ANDRE HEIMGARTNER #7 PLUS FITNESS RACING “It’s been a mixed weekend for us. We developed the car to have pretty good pace, but a few mistakes from the whole of the team didn’t help us. So in the end it was one of those weekends that we’ll put behind us and more onto the next one. I think I’ve done more passing this weekend than I have in my whole career. So there’s plenty of positives to take away. It’s good to learn where the cars strengths are on certain track. So looking forward to the next one.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO #78 TEAM HARVEY NORMAN “We had an awesome start but then got pushed around in the first lap chaos. We lost a lot of positions there, which was really frustrating. Car speed was okay. All-in-all it was a positive end to the weekend. I’m feeling comfortable in the car and excited to work with my engineer to move forward. Tasmania is a tricky place but I really enjoyed learning it last year.”
RICK KELLY #15 CASTROL RACING “It’s been an extremely frustrating weekend. We didn’t have the balance in the car during qualifying, which set the tone for the weekend. We lost a bunch of spots in the opening lap today. There was an issue where a few cars revealed a spun James Courtney, which I collected and ended our weekend. We have pretty good speed in Tassie, but you never know what to expect when you head to a track these days. The category shifts so quickly. The whole team is working hard and hasn’t been rewarded for that yet, so we’ll work even harder to get the results we demand of ourselves. »
Press release Nissan
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