After the most important race of the year, the Porsche Carrera World Cup with more than 100 participating 911 GT3 cup cars from different one-make-cups at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, tolimit motorsport takes the lead in all championship with its drivers Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi finishing on places 4, 7 and 62 respectively. Changing weather conditions with a lot of rain and the high density of participants turned the race on the 25.378 track into a challenge for teams and drivers.

According to the regulations, the team started under the flags of ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ and represented the partners from both one-make cups Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Deutsche Post, aabar, Windreich and SR Technics. Qualifying, however, did not run according to plan.

Sean Edwards: “It was a tough qualifying with so much traffic and so many yellow flags. It was not so much about speed, but about getting a clear lap, which I hardly managed.” In the end, the Brit started from position 7.

Jeroen Bleekemolen, who’s 911 GT3 Cup represented the colours of Deutsche Post, made the same experience: “I am very disappointed about the qualifying. I was not able to drive one clear lap. When you put so many drivers with different skill levels together onto the Nordschleife, a lot is to happen for sure. And that messed up all my fast laps.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi, who as always represented his home country of Abu Dhabi on his car, experienced some difficulties with the steering in qualifying: “Something was wrong, but we sorted it out for the race. Other than that I am of course suffering a bit from the changing weather. The Nordschleife is a really challenging track.” The business man from Abu Dhabi started from position 82.

On time for the race start on Saturday, the weather became typical for the Eifel region: it was raining heavily. Sean Edwards had a good start and managed to catch up to position 4. The rain specialist then benefited from the crash of his biggest competitor Nick Tandy, however, had to give way to a harsh manoeuvre from Nordschleife specialist Lance Arnold. While the track dried down again, he finished the race on position 4. For the championship, however, he will get the points for position 3, as Arnold is a guest starter. So Edwards takes over the lead in the driver standings in Carrera Cup as well as in Supercup.

Sean Edwards: “A great, but also a difficult race. I could hardly see anything in the first two laps and realised that one mistake here would end in a huge crash. Tandy took a lot of risk and finally crashed into the barriers. After that I just wanted to finish the race. I knew that I would take over the lead in both championships. A huge thanks to the team for a great job, as always.”

Team mate Jeroen Bleekemolen made his way up to the front, too. The Dutch racer faced a double challenge on this weekend due to his start in the 24 hour race. After his constant fight for positions, he benefited from the drop outs of Huisman and Giermaziak in the second lap as well as of Thiim in the third lap and finished the race on position 7. Due to the guest starters in front of him, he collects the points for position 5.

Jeroen Bleekemolen: “It was quite a good race. I was very careful at the beginning, because I couldn’t see anything. After two laps it cleared up, but I had already lost some time to the frontrunners. The speed was there, however and I would have needed one more Grand Prix track lap in order to catch two more competitors. 7th place is ok compared to where I started from on the grid.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi probably had to solve the most difficult issue in the race. The tight starting grid and the different skill level of the participants resulted in him constantly facing yellow flags and overtaking manoeuvres. Nevertheless, he competently took the challenge and moved from starting position 82 to a great 62nd place. For the driver championship in Supercup, he therefore collects his first two points of the season.

Khaled Al Qubaisi: “I managed to stay out of trouble in the race and kept on improving step after step. It’s great to collect my first two championship points in the Supercup here on the Nordschleife. After a mixed start into the weekend, this is a satisfying finish.”

tolimit head of motorsport Michael Seifert: “It was an extreme weekend that turned all legalities for one-make-cups upside down. It was more an endurance than a sprint race. Nevertheless, we took the challenge and finished as the best team of the championships. With the points collected, we take over the lead in both the Supercup and the Carrera Cup. For me personally, the result in this important race is a great relief. Team and drivers gave their best. Thanks for the performance. It makes me really proud.”

tolimit managing director Hans-Bernd Kamps: “Team and drivers did a great job this weekend. Despite of all adversities such as weather and traffic, we jointly showed a great performance. Sean now leads the driver standings of both championships and Jeroen is the runner-up in Carrera Cup. We can’t complain and keep on working to win the title.”

Photos and results will be posted on www.facebook.com/tolimit during the race weekend. For more news about the team, please visit www.tolimit-motorsport.de

The race dates in Porsche Carrera Cup:
July 3, DTM Norisring, Germany
August 7, DTM Nürburgring, Germany
September 18, DTM Oschersleben, Germany
October 23, DTM Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The race dates in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup:
July 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
July 24, Nürburgring, Germany
July 31, Budapest, Hungary
August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11, Monza, Italy

At the highlight race of Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in the principality of Monaco, ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ drivers Sean Edwards and Jeroen Bleekemolen finished on positions 3 and 4. Khaled Al Qubaisi unluckily had to retire due to a broken drive shaft in the introduction lap.
As always on the tight streets of the principality, qualifying was crucial on that weekend. Sean Edwards achieved starting position 4: “The car was good in qualifying, but I had a lot of traffic and yellow flags in my fast laps. In the last one, I unfortunately hurt my mechanic on his hand when going out. Sorry Peppi. But meanwhile, he is better again.”

In the race, the 24-year-old Brit was able to catch up one position: “Obviously the start was crucial in Monaco. I had a good one, although I put in the second gear a bit too early. But my strategy was to stay on the outside and in doing this I got passed Kuba on position 3. Jeroen also got passed, so good start for both of us. Later I just tried to have a constant race. Finishing 3rd in Monaco is great. Thanks to everyone and especially to Peppi, my mechanic, who fortunately doesn’t have anything broken in his hand.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen was fighting with the traffic in qualifying, too: “On the new tyres, I had a lot of traffic and yellow flags, but a lot of drivers faced these problems. Congratulations to René Rast, who dealt with this situation best. I could have been maybe 3 or 4 tenth of a second faster without all these disturbances.” In the end, he achieved starting position 5.
In the race, he also caught up one position at the start: “I really had a great start and got passed Kuba, who blocked me a bit, but in a fair way. Otherwise, I could have maybe even achieved 3rd at the start. Later on, I just tried to stay out of trouble, so my race was quite boring. I spent a few laps watching the boats in the harbour, so nevertheless it was fun.”

Same as his team mates, Khaled Al Qubaisi fought with the interruptions in qualifying, too: “I tried to improve lap by lap. But on my second set of tyres, I wanted a bit too much and touched the barriers e at the exit of the tunnel.” In the end it was position 22 on the grid for him.

The race of the 35-year-old business man from Abu Dhabi, was over faster than expected. A broken drive shaft forced him to retire already in the introduction lap. “It is a good result for the team with position 3 and 4. Luckily my drive shaft broke in the introduction lap and not at the start. Now I guess I had enough bad luck and look forward to the next race and do it better.”

tolimit head of motorsport and Supercup team manager Michael Seifert is, however, satisfied with the result:“Sean had to give up his lead in the driver championship by two points, however, we caught up significantly in the team standings with his and Jeroen’s result. A great team effort. Khaled seems to have rented bad luck. First it was the barriers in qualifying and then the drive shaft in the race. We will need to sort that out and make sure that he can push again in the next race. “

The race dates:
June 25, Nürburgring-Nordschleife, Germany
July 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
July 24, Nürburgring, Germany
July 31, Budapest, Hungary
August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11, Monza, Italy

Team ‘Abu Dhabi by tolimit’s Sean Edwards was the dominating pilot in this weekend’s Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race in Barcelona with a faultless race from start to finish. Team mate Jeroen Bleekemolen finished fifth. Khaled Al Qubaisi unluckily fell out in the first lap of the race.

It was a perfect weekend for Sean Edwards. Already the qualifying session went to his utmost satisfaction: “It was a very good qualifying. The car was really good and I set an almost faultless lap at the very beginning of the session. And this was the pole.” In the race, the young Brit took the lead right away from the start.”This was obviously a great race. Although Nick Tandy had a slightly better start, I managed to hold him off and then got a big enough gap to keep it until the end. A big thanks to the team for a perfect weekend. Hopefully we can keep this performance on to Monaco.”

Team mate Jeroen Bleekemolen was not as satisfied with the race weekend: „It was a quite disappointing qualifying. The car was good, but I had some issues with the brake balance on my first set of tyres and went off track three times. Although it would have been important to set the fastest lap at the beginning, I was able to improve my time on my second tyre set. But to start form 5th is obviously not the best precondition for the race.” The race of the driver, who is well-known for his fairness, was then dominated by another duel with René Rast: “It was really disappointing. René blocked me for the second time now and touched me when breaking. So we both went off track and lost one position. I was able to gain it back later on, but with all the pick-up on the tyres, wasn’t able to fight for the front.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi did not have a smooth weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya, too. Having achieved a fastest sector time under yellow flags in free practice, the pilot from Abu Dhabi had to accept a qualifying penalty: “I went out for three laps and set out a time that was ok. I wanted to save tyres, as it didn’t make sense to go faster due to the fact that I was set back for 5 positions in any way due to the penalty.“ The race of the 35 year-old-business man from Abu Dhabi, however, was over faster than expected: “I had a good start but then was getting too close to Langhorne. I am not really sure what happened, but we both collided. I apologize to him for ruining our race. I will need to learn from it.”

tolimit head of motorsport and Supercup team manager Michael Seifert is satisfied with the result:“Everything went out perfect for Sean this weekend. It’s the maximum output for him with 20 points for the race and 2 for pole position. He takes the lead in the driver championship now together with Tandy who, however, doesn’t have a race win yet. Congratulations. With today’s results, our ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ caught up one position in the team standings and now ranks second with a gap of only seven points to the front. Thanks also to Jeroen for the collected points despite of some unfair actions from our competitors. Hopfefully the fight in the front stays fair, so that I don’t have to visit the stewards too often. Unfortunately, Khaled did not experience a good race weekend. It’s a pity that the collision in the first lap cost him his whole race. We will do our very best to get the car repaired as soon as possible for the next race weekend in Monaco.”

The race dates:
May 29, Monte Carlo, Monaco
June 25, Nürburgring-Nordschleife, Germany
July 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
July 24, Nürburgring, Germany
July 31, Budapest, Hungary
August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11, Monza, Italy

‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ drivers Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi achieved a solid performance with the positions 4, 6 and 17 respectively, at the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season opener at the Istanbul Park Circuit in Turkey.

Having started the race from positions 4 and 5 respectively, Dutch Bleekemolen and Brit Edwards both had a decent start, but got passed by current champion René Rast, who came off even better and wheeled himself past them. Other than expected due to his great previous performances and due to ongoing technical issues with his brake system, Emirati driver Khaled Al Qubaisi didn’t have a very good start and fell back to position 18. In the course of the race, however, he was able to catch up one position to finish on position 17. His race was dominated by an ongoing duel with Turkish guest starter Yadel Oskan and blocking tyres – an issue that will need to be investigated back in the workshop.

The most important scene for ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit‘ drivers Edwards and Bleekemolen happened in lap 11, when Rast was making a quite severe driving error. Edwards benefited the most out of the situation and passed both Rast and Bleekemolen on the right side to finish on position 4, while his Dutch team mate found himself blocked by Rast slamming the brakes and hardly managed to avoid him. As a result, he lost his chance for the podium and finished on position 6. With 24 points for the team standings, the Lohne-based crew achieved a solid performance at the season opener and created a good basis for the fight for the championship.

Sean Edwards: “It was a difficult race. Rast got a good start and passed me in the first corner. The car was ok, but we couldn’t completely keep pace with the cars in front. In lap 11, Rast made a mistake and I passed him on the right hand side. Jeroen obviously was hardly able to avoid him, so I found myself on position 4 in the end. It’s a decent team result for us and I am looking forward to the next race in Barcelona.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen: “It was a quite disappointing race for me. I had a good car, definitely one that could have achieved 3rd place. Rast had a good start, but made some mistakes in the race and just when I wanted to pass, he slammed the brakes and blocked me, which was somehow unfair. I was hardly able to avoid him and finally lost two positions where I could have made it to the podium.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi: “The balance of the car was ok, but unfortunately, I was having problems with the brakes and locking tyres throughout the whole weekend. We will now need to take out the brake system back in the workshop and find out what the problem is. At the end, I even had to go slow and fight hard to only keep my position. Nevertheless, it’s great to be back at in the top series of the one-make-cups. Together with our team manager Michael Seifert, I will now be flying to Germany in order to get prepared for this year’s highlight event at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife. I look forward to it and to the next race in Barcelona.”

tolimit head of motorsport and Supercup team manager Michael Seifert: “With regards to the team result, the weekend was ok for us. Nevertheless, it could have gone better for our drivers, especially for Jeroen who stayed very fair throughout his duel with Rast, only to be blocked by him later on. This is a proof that the competition is fierce in Supercup, but we will stay focused on our overall target. However, we are looking forward to the next Supercup race in Barcelona. The race here in Istanbul showed that we have the pace to fight for the title. So we are confident to catch our first race win soon.”

tolimit managing director Hans-Bernd Kamps: “A decent start into the season for our ‚Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit‘ and a performance that we can work on. As always thanks to our partners Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Deutsche Post, Windreich, DHL, aabar and SR Technics for their support. We will continue working on our performance and I am convinced that they will see their brands on top of the podium quite soon.”

Eurosport will show a summary of the race on Tuesday at midnight in the ‚Race RX‘ show. The next round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup will take place on May 22 in Barcelona, Spain.

The race dates:
May 22, Barcelona, Spain
May 29, Monte Carlo, Monaco
June 25, Nürburgring-Nordschleife, Germany
July 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
July 24, Nürburgring, Germany
July 31, Budapest, Hungary
August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11, Monza, Italy

‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit‘ driver, Sean Edwards, clinched second place at the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season finale in Monza as teammate Sascha Maassen clawed back four places to end 12th, leaving the outfit in fourth overall for the 2010 Team Championship.

Starting the day’s action in fifth from the grid, Edwards put in a sterling display on the 5.7 kms long ‘Autodromo Nazionale’ to clinch his second podium finish in as many races. “The car was really great in qualifying. Position two or three would have easily been possible. Unfortunately, I was held up in both of my fast laps,” said the enigmatic Briton.

“This was one of the craziest races in my whole life with a lot of overtaking, which was quite confusing. Our car was super-fast and I was finally able to put myself behind Nick Tandy in second position. It’s great to be fourth in the team championship. It was a fantastic first season with ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ and I hope to win the next one,” added Edwards, who finished sixth overall in the Drivers’ Championship.

German veteran Maassen experienced a weekend of mixed feelings at Monza. In qualifying, the driver took position 16, one second behind the leader. In the race, the 40-year-old family man ended in 12th – meaning he finishes six positions behind Edwards in the Drivers’ Championship. “It was a typical Monza-race. A lot of pushing and shoving. You can’t catch up that much if you constantly have to fight against your colleagues, however, you are having a lot of fun,” said Maassen.

‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’s’ Emirati driver Khaled Al Qubaisi experienced an unfortunate last race, after a mistimed braking manoeuvre saw the 34-year-old Abu Dhabi resident spin out on to the gravel.

“The qualifying was not that good. In the first fast lap, I pushed too hard. In the second, I was able to improve, however, was held up by a competitor which cost me half a second,” said Al Qubaisi, who now completes his first competitive season with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority-backed outfit.

“At first it went well in the race and I was able to set a fastest lap in the first sector of the race. I am proud that I can now contest with some competitors that beat me at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, I made a braking mistake when overtaking yet I am happy about the six points that I contributed to the team’s fourth place standing.”

Team Manager, Michael Seifert, sums up: “We planned to be on the podium in the last race and to catch up in the team standings. And this is what we achieved, which makes me very happy. Sean’s catch-up race was very exciting and brought a lot of fun for us in the pits, too. As always, Sascha caught up some positions. Khaled was a bit unlucky today, however, it is a great success for him and for us that he fetched six championship points in his rookie season. At the beginning he faced some doubts as to whether he would be able to comply with the 107% rule. No one even mentions this anymore. Looking back on the season, we haven’t always been able to show our true potential. In the last part of the season, however, we improved a lot and this is all that counts. We are happy about the fourth place in the team championship.”

tolimit Managing Director, Hans-Bernd Kamps, adds: “The podium is a nice result to end the season and a great opportunity to thank our partners from Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Deutsche Post and Windreich. Furthermore, it was a great last show of our performance potential. In the final three races, we finished on the podium. In general, I am pretty satisfied with our development over the season. We constantly improved and we look forward to another great season next year.”