Andre Heimgartner has scored a top 10 finish in Race 5 in a day of gains for the Kelly Racing squad.
The Plus Fitness Racing driver climbed three spots to 12th in the early phase of the race, before he made up a further two spots after the pit stop cycle to register his first top 10 of the 2019 season. In today’s earlier race (Race 4), Heimgartner finished 18th.
Castrol Racing’s Rick Kelly was the best of the Kelly Racing finishers in Race 4, finishing 16th, before a strategy gamble to pit a second time in this evening’s 25-lap encounter saw him drop back to place 16th again after sitting as high as 13th before the second stop.
Team Harvey Norman’s Simona De Silvestro came home in 20th place in Race 4. A gamble to pit twice for fresh tyres during the late Safety Car in Race 5 saw her take 18th spot.
After finishing 24th in Race 4, RABBLE.Club’s Garry Jacobson made up two spots from his starting position to finish 20th in Race 5.
Kelly Racing will hit the track for it’s final 25 lap encounter at Albert Park, with Race 6 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship to commence at 1:35pm in the build-up to the 2019 Rolex Formula One Australian Grand Prix.
QUOTES
Andre Heimgartner #7 Plus Fitness : « I’m really happy to get a top 10 result for the team after the weekend we’ve had so far. There was a bit of carnage in front early on which opened the door for me and we just moved forward from there. It was good to unlock some speed in the car and have a good race to be there or thereabouts towards the end. We’re slowly making some gains so we can look forward to improving on that tomorrow. »
Rick Kelly #15 Castrol Racing : « We had another big swing at the setup today and in that race it didn’t feel so bad but we just lacked grip to move forwards in the field. We pitted early in the second race which meant our tyres were hurting, so when we pitted again during the Safety Car we pitted for the first set, not the cold set. We didn’t have much to work with after that and I think that strategy probably cost us two spots in the end. The changes on [Andre] Heimgartner’s car seemed to work so we’ll take today’s learnings from all four cars and go again tomorrow. »
Simona De Silvestro #78 Team Harvey Norman : « We changed the car quite a bit from yesterday, but for me it didn’t feel as good as yesterday’s car, so we’ve learned from that which is a positive. We pitted a second time under the Safety Car to put some fresh tyres on but we ran out of laps at the end. Andre [Heimgartner] seemed to have a pretty good race so we’ll see what worked for them and move on to tomorrow. »
Garry Jacobson #3 RABBLE.Club : « We changed the car massively for today’s races, my engineer Giovanni and I worked hard to get the car to better match my driving style. The first race didn’t go our way but the second race today was definitely better. My one-lap pace didn’t change much but my improvement was with the tyre life in the middle of my stints which was good to see. There’s still a massive amount of work to do for tomorrow, but today’s race certainly wasn’t as hard as yesterday in terms of tyre life which shows that we are moving forward. »
Press release Kelly Racing
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