| Maximilian Günther convinced with a strong performance at the sixth round of Formula 2 at Spielberg. Starting from sixth position Maximilian showed a furious recovery in Saturday’s race on the Red Bull Ring and was running on a podium position for most of the race. The BWT Arden driver was tackling for positions several times and won the fights impressively. Afterwards, he tried to close the gap to his competitors in front of him. However, problems with the setup of his Formula 2 car and subsequently degrading tyres ended the Rettenberger’s attacks and dropped him back to twelfth place.
There was a moment of shock for Maximilian at the pit stop: After the tyre change, his team sent him out again, but there were two competitors next to him. Maximilian tried to avoid an accident in the pit lane and passed the neighbouring team a little too close. An air hose was swirled into the air and a mechanic was hit. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured in the incident.
Because of an “unsafe release” Maximilian was subsequently penalised by race control with a 20-second penalty and dropped from twelfth to 15th place in the classification. Thus Maximilian’s starting position 15 in Sunday’s race was anything but optimal. Maximilian, who is celebrating his 21st birthday on Monday, advanced to twelfth place, but that was the maximum for him.
Next weekend (July 7/8), Formula 2 is racing at Silverstone. In the “Home of British Motor Racing” Maximilian wants to attack again and clinch his second podium position after the season opener in Bahrain.
With 20 championship points Maximilian is still in 15th place in the drivers’ standings.
Maximilian Günther: ”It was great fun to fight for the positions on Saturday and I was running on a podium positon for a long time. I was involved in many fights and had to give everything to close the gap to the competitors in front of me. The chase to catch up and problems with the setup caused that my tyres degraded so much that, unfortunately, I could not bring this good position to the finish line. Unfortunately, after my pit stop, there was a precarious situation in which a mechanic from another team was hit. After the race I immediately asked him how he was doing and thank God he was not seriously injured. Next week I’m going to Silverstone, where I performed well in Formula 3 last year and finished on the podium. I hope to be successful in the home race of my BWT Arden team again.”
BWT Arden Team Manager Kenny Kirwan: ”The BWT Arden team arrived at Spielberg with high expectations following on from our disappointing weekend at Paul Ricard. True to form Maximilian posted the 6th quickest time in Friday’s qualifying session. Maximilian raced hard and fast during the earlier part of the first race starting on the option tyre and changing onto the longer lasting prime tyre under the first safety car deployment. Although Maximilian was in contention to score points we suffered from high tyre degradation towards the final stages of the race dropping Maximilian out of contention. After making some throttle mapping and set-up changes prior to Sunday’s race 2 Maximilian put in another solid drive to finish just outside the top 10. There are only a handful of days prior to Silverstone, but the team and Maximilian are already focussed on preparations for this event and I believe Maximilian will have a very strong package as the team continues to push forwards.” |
