New Zealand racing driver Matt Halliday has secured a solid 8th place in the latest round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup held at Great Britain’s Silverstone circuit last night. Round 6 of the championship was a support event to the British Formula 1 Grand Prix and proved to be a welcome result for the Californian based Kiwi driver who worked his way up from 10th grid position in the highly competitive field.
Saturday afternoon’s qualifying was the usual tactical battle with most drivers opting for two or three fast laps on fresh tyres while Halliday again took the option of a single fast lap to capitalise on better tyre wear for the actual race. A mix up with tyres on the Friday free practice also saw him miss crucial laps on the best of his used tyres thus depriving him of valuable set-up data for qualifying.
Regulations for Porsche Supercup allow allocation of a single set of new tyres for each race thus requiring detailed analysis and an amount of risk in determining the best set-up for qualifying and race conditions. Despite having to play “catch-up” in qualifying, Halliday was pleased to qualify 10th fastest with the knowledge his car was far better suited for actual race conditions.
After making another excellent start in the race, Halliday was quickly on the move and maneuvered his way past two cars. After dicing his way into 8th position, he found the gap to 7th had opened considerably and with only 12 laps race duration, decided to conserve and secure his position rather than take further risks:
“I think 8th place was the best we could really expect after qualifying 10th in this sort of company. When you look at the high quality of drivers both ahead and behind us, the pace is really hot but at least we are moving forward again and showed we can still overtake” he commented after the race.
The next round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is scheduled to take place at the German Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday 25th July at Hockenheim. Full race coverage of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup can be seen on TV3 during their Sunday afternoon motorsport programme presented by Shaun Summerfield.
2010 PORSCHE MOBIL 1 SUPERCUP CALENDER:
Round 1 13 March Bahrain (Sakhir)
Round 2 14 March Bahrain (Sakhir)
Round 3 09 May Spain (Catalunya)
Round 4 16 May Monaco (Monte Carlo)
Round 5 27 June Europe (Valencia)
Round 6 11 July Great Britain (Silverstone)
Round 7 25 July Germany (Hockenheim)
Round 8 01 August Turkey (Budapest)
Round 9 29 August Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
Round 10 12 September Italy (Monza)
