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PRESS
RELEASE
Imargo : For Immediate Releae
Date : 11/05/02
Championship: FIA Formula 3000 Championship
Round 4
Austria 10 and 11 April 2002
QUALIFYING
PSM
Racinglines drivers Tony Schmidt and Nicololas Kiesa secured 18th and 20th
position in Qualifying for round four of the 2002 FIA International Formula 3000
Championship.
Neither
driver enjoyed a trouble free session, with both experiencing one spin and
Nicolas again suffering a mechanical failure in the dying minutes of the second
session.
“
Today was for sure our most difficult experience in Formula 3000 so far. We as a
team did not get the best from the cars, although both drivers tried very hard
there lack of experience showed. It is a very good example of how tough this
championship is and how important it is to have experience both as drivers and
as a team, we are all still learning. With our qualifying performance today we
will continue to try some development for the race and see if we can drag a
result from the weekend.” Siegfried Müeller Team Principle
RACE
From
the start both PSM cars made a lightning get away with Nicolas in car 27
enjoying the best advantage from the melee that occurred in the first and second
turns. Nicolas completed the first lap in fifteenth position and Tony in car 26
gaining a place to cross the line in seventeenth.
Nicolas
then set about attacking the cars in front and during the course of the race
passed several cars and climbed to tenth position. In the last stage of the race
he closed easily on the ninth placed car and challenged for the position right
up to the flag.
“
I
had a very good start and gained a lot of places. My car had a good balance
especially in the middle section of the race and the passes I made came fairly
easily. I suffered a little in some of the high speed corners when I lost
downforce behind other cars and had a couple of huge moments – but it was very
good and I feel we gained a lot of understanding of this circuit and the car
which will help later in the year.
Tony
drove a very solid race to bring his car home in fourteenth position again
gaining very valuable full race distance experience.