‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit‘ experienced an exciting, tentative, but in the end disappointing weekend at the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race in Hockenheim. The positions 12, 19 and 21 for Sascha Maassen, Sean Edwards and Khaled Al Qubaisi respectively, didn’t shed the real light on the ups and downs of the race.
During qualifying on Saturday, the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup drivers put in the most thrilling qualifying session of the season so far, which saw the pole setter and the 21st position separated only by less than a second. Former Porsche works driver Sascha Maassen again fought with finding the optimal tyre temperature: “The sprint format of the Supercup races is simply not to be compared with the endurance racing competitions during the past years. I am still stuck in a learning process and hope that I can proceed as soon as possible. Position 18 was all I was able to achieve in the end, although I was only 7 tenths of a second behind the pole sitter.”
In the race, the 40 year-old showed his full extent of experience and caught up six positions: “Qualifying is the crux of the matter. In the race I was always able to catch up some places.”
Briton Sean Edwards faced a disappointing qualifying, too: “Traffic, mechanical issues and bad timing – everything went wrong. That’s annoying, because the car was great and the teamwork as well.”
His streak of bad luck continued in the race. In just the first lap, the 23-year-old was turned around by a competitor and his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup suffered from a flat tyre. Nevertheless, the thought of withdrawing never crossed his mind: “The boys quickly changed the tyre and I went out again. I do have some pretty good experience in putting the cart before the horse.” In the end, he ranked 19th.
The regular instant starter and third driver of ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’, Khaled al Qubaisi, was once again able to catch up some positions in his race: “Later on, Thomas Messer touched me and caused a spin. I had to do a pit stop which was very annoying. From there, I fought until the very end.”
Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit Team Manager, Michael Seifert, sums up: “It was a very turbulent race weekend for us, yet Sascha was still able to collect some important points for the team. It is astonishing how tight the competition is in this championship, however, we expected better results and are fully aware that we are able to achieve them. For us now, the most important thing is not to lose motivation and to attack again in the upcoming race in Budapest.”
tolimit Managing Director, Hans-Bernd Kamps, adds: “We can’t be satisfied with the race result in Germany, especially when we consider how much energy and effort we’ve put into the team. I know that every team member did his utmost; unfortunately we didn’t have the luck needed to give us the extra edge. I hope we do in Budapest next week. A special thanks goes to our partners from Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Windreich and Deutsche Post. Their more than 50 guests supported us throughout the whole weekend.”
Round eight of Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup takes place on August 1, 2010 in Budapest, Hungary. Eurosport 2 will show a re-live of the race in Hockenheim on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 11.30 a. m.
