Phil Quaife Enjoys Racing In Front Of Home Crowd

08 July 2007

Phil Quaife raced in front of a massive British crowd of race fans at the Silverstone Grand Prix today and enjoyed his first experience of the biggest event in the British motorsport calendar. The sixth round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, supporting the Formula One Grand Prix, followed hard on the heels of the Magny Cours event in which Quaife took home valuable championship points. The Silverstone event was to prove a tougher challenge for the 21 year old driver from Tonbridge in Kent, with a 20th place grid position producing a 22nd place finish for him today. In the first practice session on Friday the team was struggling with car set up and disappointed to end up 26th fastest after the 45 minutes session. He returned to his Porsche Supercup racer yesterday for qualifying, and with the team making changes to improve the car Quaife had a better car. With the session following Formula One qualifying the track changes substantially, particularly with the grip levels, so this is the most frenetic session. All the drivers need to put in hot laps at the beginning when the track has most grip. The young British driver is still learning this aspect of the championship and he pushed hard to qualify 20th fastest. Although not as high up the grid as he wanted, it is so competitive in the Supercup that tenths of a second are very important in this session. The race today took place in front of a sell-out crowd of over 90,000 fans and Quaife was delighted to experience the 'Hamilton factor' with a new young F1 hero to support. The fans were equally appreciative of the exciting racing that typifies the Porsche Supercup series. Quaife didn't have one of his best races, particularly at the start when he was hit by a rival which resulted in dropping him back down the order to 24th place by the end of the first lap. He then had to work hard to stay on pace, defending from rivals behind while attacking the cars ahead. His stamina and persistence paid off, with the Brit improving to 22nd by the end of the race. He said afterwards, "I thought I'd be able to have a strong Silverstone. I ran here a couple of months ago and felt that I had got to grips with the track, so it was frustrating not to have the performance level that we expected. It was a tough weekend and a challenging race, but each time we go out in this series we gain experience and more understanding of the car. I might not have got the result I wanted today, but it was the most amazing atmosphere and a privilege to be a part of it." The next round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup takes place at the Grand Prix of Europe, Nurburgring from 20 – 22nd July.