W&S Motorsport Battles Through a Difficult Weekend in Monza

Class victory on Saturday, harsh setbacks on Sunday – W&S Motorsport looks ahead to Spa

The second race weekend of the GT4 European Series at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza was a weekend of contrasts for W&S Motorsport. A class victory on Saturday and the first race win of the season for Max Kronberg – but Sunday brought serious setbacks. Two cars retired after accidents, technical problems cost valuable time. The team takes the lessons learned, will analyse everything carefully and looks ahead with determination to the next round at Spa.

A Tough Environment

Monza welcomed the field with extreme heat – an additional factor that pushed both man and machine to their limits. On top of that, W&S Motorsport, like the entire field, had to contend with the effects of the Balance of Performance, which was particularly noticeable on Monza’s long straights and limited the pace on the high-speed sections. Nevertheless, the team showed combative commitment throughout the weekend across four cars – including the Nova Racing Porsche #27, which W&S Motorsport runs.

Race 1 – Class Win for Blickle and Kronberg

In the Pro-Am class, all three cars had podium chances at some point. The #27 of Daniel Nilsson and Edvin Hellsten was turned around in the early phase, however, and dropped to the back of the field.

The #31 of Tim Horrell and Alon Gabbay was on course for the podium until shortly before the end of the race, before Horrell was sent into the gravel just a few corners before the start-finish line.

As a result, the hoped-for top finishes did not materialise: the #31 finished tenth in class and 29th overall, the #32 of Joachim Bölting and Hendrik Still came home eleventh in class and 30th overall, while the #27 ended the race twelfth in class and 32nd overall.

Saturday’s bright spot: the #30 of Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg claimed the class victory in the Pro-Am classification and 14th overall – Max Kronberg’s first race win of the season.

Race 2 – A Sunday to Forget

Sunday turned out bitter for W&S Motorsport. The #27 was caught up in an incident at the start and dropped a long way back, but still fought its way up to 14th in class and 30th overall. The #31 of Alon Gabbay and Tim Horrell ran in podium positions for a long time: Gabbay handed the car over in third, but crucial seconds were lost at the driver change, costing the duo the podium and leaving them tenth in class and 26th overall.

It hit the #32 and the #30 even harder: Joachim Bölting was caught in a heavy contact in turn three and crashed his car into the barrier. Daniel Blickle also had a serious accident and rolled his car. The most important thing: both drivers were unhurt.

Analysis and Outlook

After a long Saturday-to-Sunday night and a difficult second race day, W&S Motorsport takes away important lessons and will analyse much. The goal is clear: at Spa, attack at full strength again.

Quotes from the Weekend

Tim Horrell (#31) lamented the bad luck: “In the second race, luck was not on our side. On top of that, we had problems with my hand controls – a tough weekend, but we take the lessons with us and will go at it again at full strength in Spa.”

Daniel Blickle (#30) looked ahead despite the accident: “The weekend did not quite go the way we had imagined. I had an accident with a rollover – I’m fine. We still need to analyse exactly what happened. But in Spa we will give it everything.”

Joachim Bölting (#32) was composed despite the heavy impact: “The weekend was very difficult. We had prepared well and got a good start – then came the collision in turn three. I hit the barrier at 160 km/h, but I’m fine. The most important thing is that we are healthy and can carry on at Spa.”

Team principal Daniel Schellhaas concluded: “On Saturday, we had the big chance to put two cars on the Pro-Am podium. Two cars were taken out of the race through no fault of their own, and the third lost its position only on the final lap. That hurts particularly because we had no influence over it. The hopes for Sunday were all the greater. Unfortunately, we have now lost five chassis at Monza within three years. In light of the many serious accidents this weekend, it is hard to imagine racing in the future with such a strong and tight field. For us, the weekend was a setback in every championship, without any of it being in our own hands. The team nevertheless did an outstanding job – now we turn our focus to Spa.”

Next round: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps – 25 to 27 June.

More photos from the weekend