After the race at warm and sunny Hungaroring expectations of the SPS Team with regards to the weather are rather low: team and drivers do await the typical “Silverstone weather” which is rather rainy and cold. Surprisingly this week-end is propitious: sunny, dry and – for British conditions – warm. Or in Tom Onslow-Cole’s words: you need ONE jacket only.
Let’s take this as a good omen for the upcoming next round of International GT Open.
The First Free Practice on Friday September 1st results in P2 in the PROAM class and the results of Qualifying 1 show the SPS AMG GT on P1 in its class and P3 overall; hence for Race 1 the SPS GT3 with number 20 starts from the second row, within touching distance to the lead. WOW – great stuff guys, excellent driving combined with a perfect set-up of the car. Awesome!
It is on Tom Onslow-Cole to start Race 1 on Saturday. It is obviously a quick race and Tom maintains his position however trying to build up the biggest gap possible to the field behind him. The two leading cars on their end are far too fast and seem to fly away. But that is of no or rather low impact for SPS as car # 20 keeps P1 in its class. Half race is over and now it is Valentin’s turn. And he is doing a really good job keeping the lead and the gap. Once of a sudden he gets involved in a battle with the car on P2 in their class. This luckily does not end up in a crash – but destroys the chance to be in the middle of the Podium which definitely was within Valentin’s grasp.
But honestly speaking: we are talking about P2 – all fine!
The next morning welcomes teams and drivers with the usual drizzling & grey sky at the track. Obviously a sign on how Qualifying 2 on Saturday will be – definitely not as smooth as Qualifying 1. The SPS AMG GT3 ends up in a challenging position at the end of the grid for Race 2. Valentin is the first at the wheel and after 29 laps Tom passes the chequered flag on P5 in class … could have been worse!
Round 6 will take us to the legendary F1 Circuito del Parco di Monza.