26th Int. ADAC TRUCK GRAND PRIX, Nürburgring
8th – 10th July, 2011

The ADAC GT Masters weekend at the Nürburgring was pure frustration for Christopher Haase. Team principal Ernst Moser (Phoenix Racing Pole Promotion) also expressed disappointment. “We have done several setup modifications but did not achieve any success. Christopher tried to make the best of this situation. However, Andreas could not handle the situation that well.”


The unusually bad places were a recurrent theme in the free practice sessions, the qualifying sessions and the races itself.


The first qualifying session with partner Andreas Simonsen (S) in the cockpit resulted in P24 for the first race on Saturday for the Audi R8 LMS pilots. 23-year old Christopher Haase (D) reached P14 for the race on Sunday in Q2. “We did not have grip and that makes it very difficult to set good times,” says Haase.


Swede Andreas Simonsen started in race 1 on Saturday and fought hard to reach P19. Christopher Haase took the car over in P20 and finished the race in P14.
It got worse in race 2 on Sunday. Haase started in P14, grabbed P13 and could hardly keep the field behind him. Simonsen took over at the mandatory pit stop and had to drive through the pit lane again. Race control saw a violation of the rules during the pit stop and gave the team a drive-through penalty. “There was a mistake. You are not allowed to use two screwdrivers simultaneously when changing the tyres. The people in charge allegedly saw that two were used simultaneously. That is not the case,” said Haase. In the end Haase/Simonsen had to settle for P19.


Christopher Haase: “The weekend was very disappointing for us. We could not keep up with the pace of the top group, no matter what we tried. The Balance of Performance (BoP) should really be reassessed here. There are some clear advantages for certain cars. We look forward now and concentrate on the next race.”


Andreas Simonsen: “This weekend’s results leave a lot to be desired. Christopher and I have fought but without considerable success. The current BoP needs to be amended.”
Ernst Moser (Team principal, Phoenix Racing Pole Promotion): “We had expected a lot more this weekend and were then surprised to have these grip issues. We have never had such a bad performance and just dropped to the end of the field. It was a weekend to forget and we need to learn from it. We need a test after this race to be able to handle the conditions better in the future.”

After a short summer break the next event will take place at the Austrian Red Bull Ring in Spielberg from 12th – 14th August, 2011. In the German-speaking region it will also be broadcast live on Kabel 1.