FIA GT1 World Championship
Interlagos (BRA), November 26th – 28th, 2010
Brazil is the penultimate stop of the new 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship. Last weekend twelve teams with 23 super sports cars met at the traditional Interlagos Grand Prix racing circuit.
The 4.3 km (2.7 miles) long track was new territory for Swiss pilot Max Nilsson who has been steadily competing for Swiss Racing Team (CHE) since the beginning of the season. He shares the NISSAN GT-R with starting number 4 with Japanese pilot Seiji Ara.
Before the Interlagos race the FIA had adjusted the Balance of Performance (BoP) in favour of the four competing NISSAN’s: 10kg less dead weight and a restrictor with 0.2mm bigger diameter. The fact that this adjustment was made shortly before the end of the season shows that the BoP is still a problem. Originally it should have been completed just after the beginning of the season. In the end the NISSAN GT-R pilots really not noticed this modification.
Nilsson was happy with the free practice session on Friday. „It could go better if the rules would allow for more tyre sets so that we could drive more. Now you have to do with four sets for the weekend.
His partner, Seiji Ara, started in the first qualifying session on Saturday in dry and sunny weather. Unfortunately, his front tyres did not have enough grip. He did not reach the Top 16. Consequently Max Nilsson again was not able to participate in the qualifying. Start position 21 for the qualifying race was the best result possible for the Japanese.
Nilsson started the qualifying race from the last row. He was forced not to push too much in order to manage the first turn without damages. However, he was able to gain a few places during his stint. “My car had a good balance and I had a good feeling. I was able to push and move forward.” During the mandatory driver change Seiji Ara took over the GT-R in P14 and finished the race in P13.
On Sunday, Ara started from P13. He had to be careful during the start as well, in order not to be involved in any collisions. For this reason he lost two places which he was able to regain until shortly before the driver change. Entering the pit lane he braked too late and was handed a drive-through penalty which Nilsson served in lap 22. This caused a considerable loss of places. However, it did not stop Nilsson from showing a great performance and from fighting with the Maserati (#34) for a place which the Swede won in the end. The final result was P16.
Max Nilsson: “Perhaps we would have been able to score points without the drive-through penalty. However, I had a lot of fun with the car this weekend and I really like the track with its turns. We will see how it goes in Argentina next week. I think it will not be easy.”
