Phil Quaife Continues Porsche Supercup Learning Curve

13 May 2007

Phil Quaife's debut season in the Porsche Mobil 1Supercup continued this weekend in Barcelona, with this one-make championship supporting the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. Quaife arrived in Spain earlier in the weekend and as a newcomer to the circuit used his preparation time to familiarise himself with the track, touring it on foot with his engineer to analyse its features and gain more information ahead of the first practice session. The first session, with a field of 32 cars, gave Quaife his first taste of the Circuit de Catalunya. At first he ran a few laps to acclimatise himself to the track and to start developing the setup to suit its characteristics. He posted 22nd fastest time in this session and was then able to improve three places to 19th place in qualifying. The race was another learning curve for the 21-year-old driver. His first experience of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car came at the Bahrain Grand Prix although Quaife had not been able to test at the track unlike the majority of his rivals. Unlike all the other race weekends Bahrain was a double-header event which gave him additional race experience and13th and 16th place finishes. At the start the long run to the first corner saw Quaife in the thick of the mid-field pack but in the fight to the first corner he was hit from behind which sent him off line and causing damage to his Porsche. He recovered only to have similar problems in the second corner and the loss of a number of positions, dropping him to 24th place. Showing his true British grit and determination Quaife fought hard and improved his position over the course of the race, finishing in 21st place at the chequered flag. Quaife reviewed his Barcelona race weekend saying, "Although we didn't finish the race with the result we wanted, there have been many positives. In qualifying the field is so tight that just a few tenths makes a huge difference. If we can find around four tenths of a second we would be in the top ten and that's a realistic goal for us. I reckon we have the sort of pace that's needed to race in the top ten as well, so that's our aim going forward. "We didn't have the best of starts and that meant that we were deep in the pack. Being hit in the first corner caused damage to the car, so I had to nurse the car and try to reduce the oversteer that had resulted from the contact. That really compromised our pace today." The Porsche Mobil1 Supercup race in Barcelona was won by Richard Westbrook with Patrick Huisman in second place and Christian Menzel in third. The championship resumes in Monaco in two weeks time and Quaife is looking forward to racing at this historic event. He will not be having a rest though. The Tonbridge driver will be back out in the FIA GT3 European championship next weekend, with a street race on the streets of Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. He says, "Racing in Bucharest will be my first experience of a street circuit and with that event coming just before Monaco, it couldn't be better. The Monaco weekend is such a big one that I want to be prepared as I can be. I'm really looking forward to the next pair of race weekends and I'm very excited with the prospect of racing through a capital city!"