Austrian Bernd Herndlhofer continues his winning streak in the BossGP Formula class. His ex Zele-Racing GP2/05 proved once again unbeatable at the Nürburgring last weekend. In front of a huge crowd of DTM spectators he outpaced his opposition and only Klaas Zwart in his 2005 Jaguar F1 was able to keep Bernd at bay.

Herndlhofer won 9 out of 10 races since he joined the BossGP championship this year. We at Zele-Racing are proud of this stunning performance and would like to congratulate Bernd for his outstanding pace.

left – right: GP2 drivers  Ingo Gerstl (AT), Michele LaRosa (IT) and Bernd Herndlhofer (AT)  enjoying the poolparty after the race with ambient temperatures in the region of 36°C

Almost 50.000 enthusiastic spectators turned up at Los Proceres / Caracas to see the roadshow of Pastor Maldonado in his Williams F1 and local hero Rodolfo „Speedy“ Gonzalez in his Zele-Racing GP2, who grew up 2km from the historic Los Proceres monument in the Venezuela capital Caracas.

Surrounded by numerous TV crews and being interviewd all day long, all Venezuelan drivers turned up for the PDVSA organised event. Pastor Maldonado, Ernesto Viso, Johnny Cecotto, Giancarlo Serenelli, Milka Duno and of course Rodolfo Gonzalez were taken on a parade-lap on the 4km circuit to greet the cheering crowd.

Pastor Maldonado took the wheel first but bad luck struck on lap two, when he lost control of his Williams F1 car on the extremely dusty and bumpy track, only to slide the back end into a walkway curb, which severely damaged the rear suspension of his car and brought the show to an end. Both Frank Williams and Toto Woff were shocked by the fact that Pastor´s run ended in such a dramatic way.

It was then Rodolfo, who saved the show, completing a 20 minute run around the Los Proceres parc and through the historic monument in the Zele-Racing GP2 car. He completed a total of 8 laps, reaching topspeeds over 230 kph and crwoned his show with numerous doughnuts in front of the presidential grandstand, where Venezuela´s vice-president and the president of PDVSA followed the show.

Despite all the Zele-Racing team equipment and both cars have been grounded at Curitiba paddock earlier this week, Austrian outfit Zele-Racing has decided to skip the Curitiba race-weekend.

Michael Zele:“ Unfortunately we were not able to secure drivers with the required budget to run our cars at Brasil. It also does not help, that the date is clashing with the Hockenheim GP weekend. This means several drivers are busy with their commitments in GP2 and GP3 and F3. It´s a pity since we expected to score a good result at Curitiba. We are one of the few teams that raced here before (2002, Telefonica World Series by Nissan with Nicolas Filiberti and Jaime Melo), so we have data and knowledge about this track. The focus is now on the next AutoGP World Series event at Sonoma in September.“

 Juan Carlos Sistos (MEX) finished today´s race on P9, starting from P10. Sten Pentus (EST) unfortunately had to retire his Zele-Racing machine with a broken driveshaft in lap 14. Juan Carlos had a good start and overtook 2 cars on the run to turn1 at the start. He then struggled a bit with the rear tires going off sooner than expected.

Sten had a poor getaway from his gridposition and lost a couple of positions. He quickly picked up the pace to pass Max Snegirev and was closing in on his teammate before stopping for new rear tires in lap 13. When propelling his car out of the pitlane to rejoin the race, the RH driveshaft let go and Sten had to retire his Zele-Racing machine at Turn 5.

Sten Pentus:“ I am still struggling with my starts. After using the paddle-clutch on the steering wheel for 3 years in WSbR 3.5, i still have to get to grips with using the foot pedal again. The car was nicely balanced and i was able to clock some decent laptimes. Also the pitstop was good, but when i rejoined the race i immediately realised that something broke on the drivetrain and i had to stop my car. Now we will be starting from P14 tomorrow, which is a long way from good points. I hope we can do a good race and show our real potential in race 2.“

Juan Carlos Sistos:“ my start was pretty good and i was able to overtake ome cars. Then, for some reason i had problems with traction and braking. After the pitstop my car felt much better and i was able to push again. P9 is not brilliant of course, but we have another chance to improve tomorrow.“

Michael Zele:“  I am obviousely not happy with the result today, but we´ve seen that we can go the pace. Sten had the best inlap by 0,9 sec. before his pitstop and i am sure he would have finished on a good position without the driveshaft giving up. Thats racing i´m afraid. Also Juan Carlos had some good moments during the race today. His start was good and the pace after his pitstop was also good. Unfortunately we lost about 4 sec. in the pitstop when one of the wheelnuts came off the gun. Tomorrow we need to improve and score points with both cars.“

Young Mexican driver Juan Carlos Sistos has joined Team Zele-Racing for the Portimao Round of the 2012 AutoGP World Series. Sistos is currently also running in the European F3 Open Series.

  Free Practice 1:

Pål Varhaug was quickest in the first Free Practice session of the Auto GP Portimão weekend. The Norwegian driver of Virtuosi UK, who yesterday focused on learning the track and saved his best rubber for today, made the most of a set of fresh soft tyres to post a 1’32”655, a time that he feels can still be improved: “When I did put the fresh tyres on, I immediately felt that there was much more grip than yesterday, and with a few more laps I’m sure that I would have improved my time a lot, because in many places I could have pushed more. I’m confident for the weekend, I really love the track”. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was second, lapping on used tyres after using a set of new soft Kumhos yesterday. With a 1’32”972 he ended the session just 0.03 ahead of Marrakech Race 1 winner Sergio Campana. Sergey Sirotkin was fourth with a 1’33”589, and was happy to share his enthusiasm about the track: “It’s great, with many blind corners, uphills and downhills, it’s a kind of track I really like. The main straight is a bit bumpy, but apart from this I love it”. The young Russian of Euronova was followed by Victor Guerin and Facu Regalia, while Daniel de Jong was in P7 ahead of Sten Pentus. The Estonian driver of Zele Racing didn’t take part in yesterday’s test session and so he used this Practice to get acquainted with a track where he already raced in 2009. He closed the session 0.03 ahead of team-mate Juan Carlos Sistos, who kept showing an impressive pace at his Auto GP debut. Chris Van der Drift closed the top ten with the second Manor MP Motorsport entry.

Free Practice 2:

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs posted the quickest time of the second Auto GP Free Practice session in Portimão. The Briton of SuperNova stopped the clock on a 1’33”095 that allowed him to edge team-mate Victor Guerin by just 0.01. The Brazilian boasted a good performance, but he feels that there’s still work to do: “I was the only driver of the top tier on new tyres – said Victor – so I can’t be too happy. We still miss something, especially to catch Adrian, but we still have time before Qualifying”. Sergio Campana was third and again on the pace with a 1’33”375, ahead of Virtuosi’s Pål Varhaug. Daniel de Jong showed an 8 tenths improvement from his morning laptime that allowed him to take P5, just 0.017 ahead of Sergey Sirotkin who closed the session with a 1’33”699. Facu Regalia took P7: the Campos Racing driver posted a 1’33”919 that bodes well for today’s Qualifying, but with 1’30 to the end of the session a technical issue stopped his car at Turn 1. The team is investigating to find the reason for the glitch and is already at work to repair Facu’s Lola for the Qualifying session.
Juan Carlos Sistos improved again and closed the session in P8, ahead of team-mate Sten Pentus. Chris van der Drift rounded the top-ten, with Antonio Spavone following him very closely and seeing room for improvement in Qualifying: I did some mistakes in my best lap, so I can definitely go quicker. It’s not an easy track, mastering it takes time, but I like it” he said. The session ended with 11 drivers in one second, something that hints to a very hot Qualifying session, from 3.30 PM today.

Qualifying:

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs clinched the fourth pole position of his Auto GP season in Portimão. The British driver of SuperNova was quickest in a tight packed session that saw nine drivers end in the same second. Adrian climbed on top before the ten minutes mark with a 1’32”5, and then improved to 1’32”342 in the late part of Qualifying, after that the session was stopped for a spin by Michele La Rosa.
The last 30’ of today’s action saw many yellow flags, and that meant that many drivers were forced to abort their best laps: poleman Quaife-Hobbs had to cope with that, as well as Sergio Campana and Facu Regalia. The Argentinian driver of Campos Racing posted the best qualifying performance of his season so far with a 1’32”625 that was worth second place, and was really happy with his car: “Session after session we improved a lot – Regalia said – and I have to say thanks to the team and to my engineer Sean Thompson for that. We are quick and consistent, we could have been even quicker without yellow flags and we are looking good for the race. First row was my aim, so I’m really happy today”. Victor Guerin completed a very good team performance from SuperNova taking third, just 0.02 off Regalia’s time: “Coming from GP2 it took some time to get acquainted with the car again”, he said. “At the start of the weekend I was a long way off Quaife-Hobbs, but we made a lot of changes to the car before qualifying and it’s now much better”. Sergio Campana was fourth with 1’32”677 and despite the good result the Italian was really disappointed for the yellow flags that ruined his best lap: “I’m a bit angry because I could have challenged for pole without wasting my best lap with that yellow flag. It’s frustrating, but at the same time I’m happy because the car is quick, we are on the pace”. Fifth place went to Pål Varhaug: the Norwegian’s speed was good but he missed the last minutes of Qualifying due to a fuel pressure issue, and so he couldn’t improve in the deciding moments. He closed the session ahead of Sergey Sirotkin, who also had his share of bad luck: the young Russian of Euronova did hit a stranded piece of astroturf that got stuck into his suspension, preventing him from turning and putting an end to his session. The team managed by Vincenzo Sospiri couldn’t even count on the other car because Antonio Spavone stopped on track due to a technical issue with ten minutes to go. Chris Van der Drift was seventh ahead of team mate Daniel de Jong, both hampered by an oversteering car. Zele Racing rounded the top ten with Sten Pentus closing three tenths ahead of team-mate Juan Carlos Sistos.

Sten Pentus: „I am not really happy with my starting position, because i know we could have done better. The balance of my car is pretty good, but we still have to trim it a bit for the fast corners. It is quite difficult here at Portimao to catch the peak of the tire. Unfrtunately i´ve missed it twice today, but the gap to the fastest guys is no so big. I will try my best in the race tomorrow to jump a few positions.“

Juan Carlos Sistos: „It´s the first time since 2009 that i´m driving such a powerful car and it´s very different to the F3. I am happy with the performance so far and we´ve been on P7 in the testing yesterday. I made a mistake on my first set of tires in Qualifying and spun, but luckily i could rejoin the session. Then we had a red flag which spolied my second run on new tires. So P10 is not what we expected, but that´s racing.“

Michael Zele:“ We obviousely are a bit disappointed with the Qualifying result, but we have to focus on the races now.Both drivers are quite happy with their cars and that´s a good sign.“

Team Zele-Racing and Sten Pentus had a fantastic race starting from  P9 on the grid to finish P4, just behind the 3 championship leaders  Varhaug, Quaife-Hobbs and Sirotkin. In front of a massive crowd of  spectators at the Hungaroring Pentus had a good start today. The pitstop on lap5 was just perfect, as Sten was able to do a very good stint  after exiting the pits which payed off well. Even the podium was in  reach today.

Sten Pentus:” We had a fantastic strategy today and my car was very  fast, also the balance was perfect. I did not realise i had a damage on  my car, but for sure we could have gone for the podium without the  broken diffuser and missing beamwing. The guys did a very good job at  the pitstop. I am really happy today.”

Michael Zele:” I am really happy for Sten and also for the Team. The strategy  was very good today and things played into our hands. Sten did a very  good stint after the pitstop which helped us to pull away from the guys  who stopped later in the race. We found a really good setup now which  seems to work everywhere we race. For Portimao and the overseas races we are planing to run both cars and of course we hope to keep Sten in our  Team.”

Team Zele-Racing and Sten Pentus finished todays Race1 at Hungaroring on a  slightly disappointing P9. Things began to go wrong at the start, when  Sten lost several positions due to a poor getaway. Already in turn 2  there was drama, when Max Snegirev crashed into and flew over the Lola´s of Adderly Fong and Sergio Campana.

Sten opted to pit in lap 4 to avoid running in traffic, but the strategy did not pay off. The pitstop itself was good, but to avoid clashing with  Spavone in the pitlane, the lollipop man opted to release Sten behind  the Euronova driver, which turned out to be a mistake. Spavone had  a slow outlap but managed to keep Pentus, who was all over him for  several laps behind him.

Sten eventually finished the race on P9, one position down on what could have been the poleposition for Race2.

Michael Zele:” Several things went wrong today, so Í am definitely  not happy with the result, since we all know that we should be at least  in the top5. All we can do now is to concentrate on the race tomorrow.  Regalia who started from P8 today managed to finish on the podium today. It means things can also go the other way around.”

Sten Pentus:” I´m not happy with P9 of course, but i had a really  good car again today. The start was not good, when the revs dropped.  Looks like the tires built much more grip then i expected. The pitcrew  did a good job, but there was a misunderstanding when we rejoined the  race and Spavone just got past me exiting the pitlane. I tried really  hard to overtake him, in some places i was so much faster, but there was no way to get past without taking massive risk. That´s racing,  hopefully tomorrow we´ll be more lucky.”

Race 2 will start tomorrow, sunday at 12:35 a.m. CET and will be broadcasted LIVE on EuroSport again!

Dont miss it and stay tuned!

Zele-Racing is happy to announce that Giacomo Ricci will be back in one of the Zele-Racing cars for the Race of Morocco at Marrakech this weekend. Ricci has shown a great performance with the Team at the opening round at Monza earlier this year, where he was on the way to a podium finish before being taken out of the race by Sergio Campana. The Marrakech Street Circuit will be a tough challenge for the AutoGP cars. Topspeeds of 290kph between concrete walls and tight chicanes will provide thrilling action, since the AutoGP cars with 550BHP will be the fastest cars that have ever raced on this track.

Both races will be broadcasted LIVE on EuroSport Saturday and Sunday 14th/15th April 2012!

More news from Morocco to follow shortly. Stay tuned!

Both races of the AutoGP World Series at Valencia ended slightly disappointing for the Zele-Racing Team. Whilst young italian Matteo Beretta was taken out of race 1 by another driver with 5 laps to go in race 1, Peter Milavec finished on P15. Beretta had to retire his Lola – Zytek machine with a broken rear suspension and wing. The pile-up and drama was caused by Supernova driver Victor Guerin, who experianced a severe oil-leak on his engine. Several drivers spun off track before the safety car was deployed – unfortunately too late for Beretta.

Matteo Beretta: “ I slowed down because of the slippery track in turn 2 and was suddenly hit by some other car. It ruined my race since i could not continue.“

Peter Milavec:“ In the early stages of the race i was able to hold on to the guys in front of me, but then i ran wide in lap 8 and was not able to keep up the speed. I had my first pitstop in the race and it went reasonably well. I am amazed how reliable and good the AutoGP cars are. This is really impressive.“

Also the second race did not deliver the expected results. The radio on Matteo Berettas car quit the job, which influenced the tire strategy of the Team. With 7 laps to go  Matteo was chasing GP2 driver Giancarlo Serenelli, when a problem on the front wing occured – probably caused by contact with one of the curbs. With a now understeery car he was not able to close the gap and gain positions. Peter Milavec meanwhile drove a solid race without mistakes bringing the car home on P16 again. Beretta nursed his Lola home on P13.

Michael Zele:“ Obviousely a quite disappointing weekend for us. We had no big expectations when we came here, but at least we expected to see Matteo in the points in both races. We now have to focus on the Marrakech races in two weeks. It happened now twice that someone crashed into our car, which of course did not happen on purpose, but it´s just frustrating.“