Performance Racing News...http://www.performance-racing.se/index.phpThe latest News from Performance Racing!eninfo@performance-racing.seCopyright 2006 Performance Racing2010-06-02T13:51:03+02:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:04:12 +0200Drama at the sharp endinfo@performance-racing.seNone2010-06-02T13:51:03+02:00http://www.performance-racing.se/news.html#unique-entry-id-73http://www.performance-racing.se/news.html#unique-entry-id-73
Before the race at Hockenheim the Performance Racing team had a feeling that we would be fast on this circuit…
The team have a good track record from the German Formula 1 circuit with pole positions both in 2008 and -09.
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Felix was fast already from the first free practice on Thursday but surprisingly Alon was not as fast as expected! We later found out that there was an Issue with the brakes that was easily solved once Alon made the team aware of the problem. With the technical gremlins out of the system Alon made a big improvement on Friday Qualifying but obviously it was to much to catch up so 1st qualifying ended in a disappointing P11, just over 1s off pole sitter Daniel Abt. Felix who was on a trouble free journey, so far, ended P2 just 0.13s off pole. Felix had a pole lap going but had to abort the lap in the final sector due to traffic, not much to say about this since this is common in racing but it was good to see the speed and potential in Felix's driving.

All through the weekend the decision of the race director to follow the FIA rules concerning the "track limits" was plaguing the drivers. Hockenheim Turn 1 is notoriously difficult for a driver to keep within the track limits and in qualifying 2 more than 90 laps was cancelled due to this regulation. Also in the British F3 camp (who was racing together with us this weekend) there was a similar pattern. The enforcement of this rule at Turn 1 in Hockenheim really made this weekends qualifying and racing look a bit silly. According to one of the senior figures in the British F3 camp the unison opinion of the British F3 teams and Drivers was that they would not come back to Hockenheim again to race under these conditions.

The turmoil in 2nd Qualifying regarding cancelations of fastest laps made it difficult to know the result and it took until sunday morning before we where sure on where on the grid we should start! Anyway For Performance Racing the outcome was good with Alon in P7, just 0.7 from pole and Felix in P3 0.35 of pole sitter Tom Dillmann.
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The first race of the weekend started with a crash. Angolan driver Sa Silva drove into the back of van Amersfoort driver Willi Steindl who stalled on the grid. Felix did a great start and jumped straight in to the lead but the accident blocked the start finish area so the race director decided to stop the race. The track was cleared and all remaining drivers took their original grid positions for a re-start. Again Felix did a great start and took the lead from pole sitter Abt and the pair raced away from the rest of the field.
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Then on lap 7 Daniel Abt drove in to the back of Felix who lost control and drove off the track and hit the wall. The incident was recognized by the race director who gave Abt a drive through penalty but in our opinion he should at least have had a stop and go. Now Abt could rejoin the race in 5th and pick up valuable points while Felix got a broken car and zero points out of race one. Meanwhile in the pit-lane the feelings in the Performance Racing team was boiling and when Abt took his Drive through penalty he was shown a well known gesture by the Team Manager.
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Note! After the race Daniel Abt showed great sportsmanship when he came over to Performance Racing and apologized for his driving and Felix and the team accepted his apologies. We are now good friends as we where before this incident.

But problems where not over for the Performance Racing team! Soon after the trouble for Felix, Alon got a drive through penalty for crossing the white line at turn 1 and that ruined Alons race who finished P10 after being on route to a good points finish.

Race 2, the final race of the weekend was another disappointing race for Felix who was running in third when he got a drive through penalty for crossing the white line at turn 1 . That ruined the race for Felix but at least he managed to finish 8th and secure the final point. But all was not gloom at the Performance camp. Finally Alon showed his true pace and drove a superb race. It was great to see an inspired Alon fighting all the way to finish P4.

Conclusions. Hockenheim weekend proved that both our drivers are very fast. Felix has now firmly established himself at the sharp end and Alon has proved that he can run at the pace of the best as long as he can get a good qualifying result. We are looking forward to the next race in Assen...


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