Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan and Scuderia Corsa earned their sixth consecutive IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship podium at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park today. Their third-place finish in the GTD class at the Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix came as no surprise, underlining a long streak of consistency for the team and drivers of the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3.
The weekend started out strong for Nielsen, who qualified the Ferrari in a top five position. When the green flag dropped on today’s race, she drove hard through the winding road course and set a quick pace from the start. She and Balzan did well to keep the No. 63 near the front of the field, maneuvering through wet and dry conditions to finish in third place. The duo experienced positions both gained and lost but were rewarded with a positive result overall. Today’s outcome marks six consecutive podiums for Scuderia Corsa.
“We were rewarded with a podium finish thanks to a great effort by the team,” Nielsen said. “However, we have some things that we want to go home and look at, as a team, that we feel like we should improve. Of course, it was still a great effort, and no matter what kind of challenges we had — everyone had the weather as a challenge, as it was raining a bit, drying up and raining again — it was a weekend that we can learn a lot from.
“As championship leaders, you have a bit of a different mentality because you have a lot more to lose than others,” she continued. “It changes your mentality a little bit — you’re not the one who has to risk as much to gain points. You need to stay in front and not have any mistakes that will cost you any points that could enable the others to come back in the championship.”
