Nürburgring 21-23 September: after a long summer break it was time to fire up the Lamborghini Gallardo LP-570-4 V10!
Despite cold weather conditions over the course of the race weekend we managed to score good points at the Nürburgring with two podium finishes.
These results were a welcome relief after a rather disappointing race at Spa, where I finished in sixth position after leading the race in the final stages with a great advantage before being hindered by a fuel pump system failure.
Qualifying turned out to be a big challenge as it was very hard to get heat into the tyres with an outside temperature around 10 degrees Celsius. On the first set we lost more than one second to p1. In the final minutes of the session we went for the second stint. Just after altering the tyre pressures, there was a huge improvement in the grip level, which saw me topping the time sheets and landing another pole position by 0,13 seconds to come in second placed.
Starting race one from pole placed me in the best possible position of winning the race. Everything was looking good; I managed to draw out a race lead of seven seconds just before the pit stop phase begun. Upon exiting the pit stop I couldn’t disengage the pit limiter. After hitting the button several times, running almost the complete first sector with a maximum speed of 60 km/h and watching my rivals flying past as I was relegated to fourth position, I eventually managed to free my car and took off hunting for the podium with a fastest race lap. In the end, my efforts were enough to see me finish the race in third position. Nevertheless, I scored good points and netted my first podium in the series.
Starting race two from P3, where I finished race one. I managed to make a good start and was in first position by turn one. This time it seemed more difficult to get away from my rivals. Running on the same set of tyres that I’d used in my first outing in qualifying – which didn’t perform all that well – the deficit now seemed to follow me into this race. Struggling to fight off my rival’s attacks, I still kept the lead until I was roughly bumped aside by Piguet and dropped to P2. The next contender coming up strongly behind me was Amici, the championship leader. He set fastest lap and was pressuring me for the final five laps. With a fair fight until the chequered flag, we got our second consecutive podium finish for Bonaldi Motori with P2. Once again, a big thanks to the team. Bonaldi is on its way to the top. Great to be a part of it!
Next race: Navarra (Spain) 20-21. October
