First day of City Challenge action at Baku street circuit
Published on 26 October 2012 by Niels Hendrix
City Challenge track action started at the 2.144 metres long street circuit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, today, with free practice sessions for the City Challenge GT, Classic Grand Prix and the Ghymkhana City Drift categories. The fastest lap time in the GT class was established by Rob Bell/Alvaro Parente with the Hexis-McLaren MP4-12C GT3, who topped the time sheets in second free practice with 1:04,254 minutes. In the morning session, Vita4One-BMW Z4 duo Mathias Lauda/Frank Kechele had been fastest with a time of 1:05.947 minutes.
The first day of practice at the Baku street circuit provided the drivers with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the temporary track. "Quite impressive what has been achieved here," said ex-Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen, who had his first experience of driving a GT3 car. However, spirits within the team were less upbeat after Jacques Villeneuve had an accident with the car in second free practice.
"I wasn't even going that fast, but I spun and hit the tyre barriers," the Canadian ex-Formula 1 World Champion and Indy 500 winner commented. Vita4One team owner Michael Bartels couldn't confirm rumours that the car was damaged beyond immediate repair. "We fear that the chassis is bent. Of course, we will try whatever we can do to get the car going again, but if there is the slightest risk, we will not do it. Safety is our utmost concern," said the German.
In first free practice, lap times of the first eight cars were within one second, with a nice mix of five different sports cars in the top ten. In the second session, the first seven cars were within one second, once again with five brands in the top ten.
The motorsport programme continues tomorrow, Saturday, October 27th, with qualifying sessions and sprint races from 9.30 till 17.40 h. Sunday, October 28th, is the main race day, with warm-up sessions for all categories from 9.15 h, followed by a GT drivers' parade at 12.00 h and races from 12.50 h till 17.15 h. All information can be found on the website: www.citychallenge.com.
Niels Hendrix
