At its race return in the International GT Open, Solaris Motorsport gains at the first attempt the points with the Francesco Sini and Mauro Calamia Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The English coupè showed a little improvement in its home track at Silverstone, bringing home the tenth place in Race 1, very close to the group was fighting for the eighth. A good news looking the next GT Open round hosted in Italy on the speed-temple of Monza early October.
With a collective private test session and the two free practices sessions, the Solaris Motorsport technicians were able to work on the setup of the Vantage GT3 on a track characterized by cold temperature and unstable weather. The sixth row gained by Francesco Sini on Saturday Race 1 qualifying gave some expectation to Solaris guys, due the very close charts with less than a second between P3 and P12, with very strict gaps between the positions. The 70 minutes endurance race confirmed the good feelings of the practices, with the Aston Martin able to comeback until the points zone thanks the good race pace of Sini and Calamia, so bringing home the tenth place.
During the Sunday’s Race 2 qualifying, Calamia was blocked by an opponent that didn’t check his mirrors and then the Race Control deleted his best lap due track limits, kicking him back on row 11th. The team didn’t give up and rolled up the sleeves for the race, conditioned by the rain all the 29 laps long. Calamia was protagonist of a good start and, together with a solid stint, earned 5 positions before entering the pits for the mandatory pit stop and drivers change. When Francesco Sini took the wheels, the Italian Vantage GT3 kept to move the charts until P14, but a technical failures forced to stop Sini and his Aston Martin with ten minutes left to the checkered flag, when they were fighting for the positions just behind the points.
“We probably expected something more from the race on the Aston Martin home track. We aren’t yet to the performance level we want to be, but we are improving race by race. The GT Open level is very high and it keeps to grow up with new strong cars and drivers, a very positive thing for the championship but an extra effort for us.” commented Roberto Sini, Solaris Motorsport Team Principal, who is helped in his job by the sons Francesco and Laura. “Mauro and Francesco gave the 110%, giving a lot of informations to the technicians to develop the setup. The rain fallen on Sunday and some problem on Friday slowed our work, taking the opportunity away from us to try something more. Anyway, we had often the best top speed, a good signal looking the next GT Open round in Monza. It’s our home race, we want to enjoy our fans!”
