More Points For Quaife In Hungarian Porsche Supercup Round

05 August 2007

Phil Quaife was back out on track in the Porsche Supercup this weekend, supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship, with round nine taking place at the Grand Prix of Hungary, in Budapest with the field of 29 cars racing at the Hungaroring circuit. Quaife, in his rookie season of this highly competitive championship is learning many new European circuits as he competes in each event and this track is one of the most challenging, with its flowing course of corners giving little time for drivers to relax, with its physical and mental demands. The short Friday practice session gave Quaife his first taste of the undulating circuit and he used the time to acclimatise himself to its characteristics, ahead of afternoon qualifying. With 22nd fastest time, the British driver was set for the 11th row of the grid for the start of today's race. He said of the session, "It wasn't one of my best qualifying sessions, and it's a little disappointing to end up so far back, particularly at a track where it's notoriously difficult to overtake. It's a circuit that I enjoy, it's good fun and an interesting challenge for a young driver like myself. "It's the last sector where I'm struggling and losing all my time – around half a second – and that is making such a big difference. I feel like I'm pushing as hard as I can, but there has to be more to be so far off. The car has been good all weekend, so I just need to battle hard in the race and make up some places to get in the points." Quaife used the start of the race today to make up some positions and he quickly settled into the race. Over the course of the 14 laps Quaife made up positions to improve to 14th at the chequered flag. He reflected on his Hungary race weekend, saying, "I couldn't see the lights for the start as we were so far back on the grid, so that was our first challenge, but I watched the others ahead moving off and was able to get away well. From there I knew it was going to be difficult to pass many cars, but we did manage to, and picked up a few spots from others misfortunes. Our consistency and pace were good, but as is too often the case, starting from that far back, a top ten finish is always going to be a tall order. With points awarded down to 15th, we've scraped a few more which is good for us and the team." The Porsche Mobil1 Supercup resumes competition at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul, in three weeks time.