FIA GT CHAMPIONSHIP

MONZA

POLE AND SECOND  PLACE IN ITALY

The first race of the FIA series at Monza was a close battle between the two GruppeM Porsches.    In qualifying Tim Sugden set the GT2 pole, the first time he has taken pole position for an FIA race with the #66 sister car just 0.319 seconds behind in second place.

Taking the first stint in #88 Sugden led the race but Mike Rockenfeller then pitted slightly early when he thought he had a puncture.   In fact there was oil on the track and the remaining cars all lost a little time so that when the #88 car pitted a small gap had opened up.

In his middle sting Emmanuel Collard, Sugden’s co-driver in this series closed the gap to Mark Lieb in the #66 and as the #88 made its final pit stop to hand back to Sugden it was as close as it could be for the GT2 lead.    As Sugden came out of the pits Rockenfeller in the #66 was coming down the pit straight and it was nip and tuck into the first corner with Rockenfeller just having the momentum to carry him through.

From here the two cars circulated in close formation, never more than 6 seconds apart and at the chequered flag the gap was just 2 seconds.

After the race Tim Sugden said: "It was really good fun. The cars were very evenly matched today. I think all our laps were within a couple of tenths from all our drivers. It was a really good fight. In the end we were side by side. Mike [Rockenfeller] had a couple of laps to warm up his tyres and was just able to pass me and then it was a fight until the end. The Michelin tyres were good all weekend. They were very consistent, very brilliant. I am already looking forward to the next race. This weekend, it was a big fight between ourselves and the other car, but in the next race there will be some more quick cars with the British GT2 racing with us, but we still hope to win again then."