NEWS

FIA GT1 2010: Mad-Croc Nurburgring Report

Article from GT1World.com

After the win of the Mad-Croc Corvette No.11 of Xavier Maassen and Jos Menten in Spa, the Dutch pairing showed up at the Nurburgring with high hopes, as did the Finnish duo Mika Salo and Pertti Kuismanen in the sister car No.12. It was not to be as both cars finished down the order in the Qualifying and Championship Races.

So the fightback will begin at the next round in Portugal, according to Patrick Sellslagh, team manager of the No.12 car. “We cannot be satisfied with a 15th and 23rd position in the races, that’s for sure." Maassen agreed that two 18th places were not acceptable while Menten cited Qualifying as the root cause of their problems in the No.11. "That’s where our weekend started to go wrong," he said. “I made a little mistake in the last chicane during my last fast lap and so we lost the opportunity to go to the third and final Qualifying session. "We looked at the data and my mistake was the difference between a 10th spot and a place in the top eight.

"And it’s the top eight which battles for pole position. So what can I possibly tell you more? Of course I’m disappointed, for myself, the team and Xavier.” In the Qualifying Race, the No.11 Corvette with Menten at the wheel made a good start, but was caught up in the first-corner chaos. "I got hit from all sides and the race was over, we lost four laps in the pitlane and that was it," he said. "And what’s more, the Qualifying Race settles the grid for the Championships Race on Sunday and our place on Sunday was the back end of the grid. That was another bitter consequence of it.”

Salo and Kuismanen climbed from 21 to 15. "It was a rather good result, given the fact that we got a drive through penalty for pitlane speeding, as Mika came in," Kuismanen said. In the Championship Race, Maassen was in the wars again. “After making a good start, I was 11th or 12th, I got hit again," he said. "We finished 18th and that was it."

Salo made a promising start in the No.12 but a brake problem slowed the car down, resulting in a 23rd position.