21 June 2001

FIA International F3000 Championship - Nurburgring (pictures here)
Giorgio Pantano once again showed his pace in the sixth round of the FIA Formula 3000 Championship.

For the second time this season the Italian set fastest lap of the race, but a collision on the opening lap forced him to make a pit stop that denied him any chance of his first top-six finish of the year.

Pantano qualified his Astromega Lola 10th at a track he knows well from his title-winning campaign in last year's German F3 Championship. "The car wasn't too bad at all," he said, "but we just weren't quite able to extract the maximum from it. I am working with a different race engineer this weekend and it always takes time for new relationships to gel.

"I was confident that I could score points, but unfortunately I had a bit too much wheelspin at the start and lost a couple of places on my way to the first corner. I was trying to recover one of those at the chicane, but Fabrizio Gollin was very defensive and didn't give me any room, even though I was alongside him. He turned into the corner and even though I tried to keep out of his way his right rear tyre clipped my front wing, which was slightly damaged. At the end of the second lap I had no choice but to come in for a new one."

Rejoining at the back of the field, Pantano lapped at a similar pace to the leaders until his car's handling began to deteriorate. "It felt as though I had a puncture," he said, "but in fact the rear tyres had simply worn out."

He pitted to have the car checked, and when he returned to the track with a replacement set of tyres he set the fastest two laps of the race as it drew to a close. "It is nice to know we have the speed," he said, "but it is frustrating that niggling problems prevent us from showing as much in terms of results. We have another event next weekend at Magny-Cours in France. That will be a new circuit to me - and I hope it will bring a change of luck, because I have no doubt that we have the pace to run right at the front."

"After having qualified once again in the top 10 in only his 35th car race Giorgio had once again someone running over his front wing in the race. It forced him down the order before he could pit for a replacement front part. All chances of a result was by then gone again and the only positive thing we could take away was that he managed to set the fastest lap as he also did in Austria. We have nothing to show apart from holding 33% of the fastest laps in this years F3000 competition, so we will have to build and work even harder the rest of this season from this". Said his manager Lars-Christian Brask

Porsche Pirelli Supercup - Nurburgring
Jesper Carlsen proved that he is really getting to grips with the Porsches this weekend. He qualified in 21st place which, as a position, he was disappointed with although such was the competition that he was closer to the pole position time than he has been all season. Jesper made a superb start and demonstrated the same pace as the front runners to move into 12th place. Sadly he had to retire from the event with gearbox problems after losing third and fifth gears. This was particularly disappointing as the gearbox had only been replaced on the previous Thursday.

T-Cars Championship - Brands Hatch
Ryan Lewis moved into third position in the championship after a superb performance at Brands Hatch at the weekend. Ryan regained some of the form he showed in the early rounds of the season by taking two podium finishes - third in the first race on Saturday and then second in Sunday's event. In qualifying Ryan put the #69 car third on the grid for both races.