Matech Competition: A few regrets

30/08/2010

The Matech Competition Ford GTs failed to convert solid Qualifying Race results into championship points in an incident-filled Nurburgring weekend for the team.

Despite the No.5 car of Thomas Mutsch and Richard Westbrook finishing in sixth place, they finished down the order in 13^th in the main event. Stablemates Nicolas Prost and Richard Westbrook in the No.6 car finished 16^th in the Championship Race after an 8^th place finish the previous day.

The team left Nurburgring with a lot of regrets because the podium was close. Mutsch managed to cling to second place in the drivers’ standings. Matech lies fifth in the teams’ classification after solid performances from their closest rivals.

Team quotes:

Thomas Mutsch, No.5

“I had a very good start and had the tyres up to temperature quickly. I was quite okay, but we were missing a lot of top speed, that was our biggest problem. I had to fight a little bit to keep the position and then on lap six the Lamborghini hit me.

“Everything was okay with the car but what can you do if somebody is coming with two locked front wheels into you? It’s just stupid because they are also going for the championship … not much else to say.”

Richard Westbrook , No.5

“The race promised so much and delivered so little for us. Thomas was doing a great race and someone mistimed their braking and spun him off so the race was pretty much finished from there.

"I was stuck behind a few cars but made up a few places … I went past a Nissan and he didn’t see me on the inside, he spun round and then (Enrique) Bernoldi got back past me who I had already overtaken before … then he just started doing some crazy things trying to defend going into the Mercedes Arena … and he just stopped the car in front leaving me nowhere to go.

“We touched and I got a drive-through penalty. We’ve had our race wrecked by people bumping into us and then we get a penalty. At least we lost our 40Kg. We know we’re quick, but we just need a bit more speed down the straights and a bit more luck.”

Neel Jani, No.6

“It’s a bad day today, really bad day because after starting eight, I was expecting for a top five result. Unfortunately, Nicolas suffered some problems and he fell back to 20th and from then on we didn’t have chances anymore to go forward.

“I could move the car up to 16th and then to 17th. But we were out of points so I just tried to push hard and not to damage the car.”

Nicolas Prost, No.6

“From the very first start, one of my tyres started being destroyed. We can see some pieces of gum are missing so there was nothing to do with a tyre like this one. We have to find an explanation because the three others were good. It’s really a pity because we were expecting a good result, but unfortunately it was impossible to do something. I was stopped without any grip on the right rear wheel.”

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