Review Monza: “Top 5 in this field is a reward!"

Following a 2012 season with Ferrari in the World GT Championship Enzo Ide is up against a brilliant double assignment in 2013. The young West-Flanders based driver will be competing in both the Blancpain Endurance Series and the FIA GT Series with Phoenix Audi, paired up with his countryman Anthony Kumpen and for the longer events with the GT1 World Champion, namely the German Markus Winkelhock. The opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series on the super fast Monza circuit was an immediate hit on all fronts: an unbelievably strong field of competitors, a top level competition with the cream of the European GT racing world and in that context a well deserved fifth place for the Enzo Ide, Anthony Kumpen and Markus Winkelhock trio. “If you look at it overall we might have been able to finish one tread higher, but that would have been a perfect race. This time around we got pretty close and we can definitely say it was a great outcome", Enzo Ide, the promising young West-Flanders driver commented.

Monza was not really a track that the Audi-teams were waiting to tackle, but on the other hand the track in the vicinity of Milan is an attraction in itself.

Enzo Ide: “Monza is exceptionally fast, with long straights and highly intense braking zones. Our Audi R8 LMS Ultra is a car that relies on its road holding as opposed to top speed and here this is a condition to finish up front. On the other hand one can overtake here on this track and then there is the homogeneity of the team, as also the intense professionalism of the Phoenix crew. No way were we defeated in advance."

Qualifying is an exercise amounting to pure speed and Enzo ide was satisfied with a top-20.

Enzo Ide: “The race itself is another entity, and I will be taking the start and do my utmost to gain a few places prior to handing over the wheel to Anthony and therefore later to Markus. The first immediate assignment will be to get through that almost legendary chicane, in one piece. Once through that the race really takes off."

The race went reasonably smoothly, even though here and there the team was held up, which obviously cost time, something that can be highly costly in this top level competition.

Enzo Ide: “Personally I experienced some problems with the fuel pump during several laps, followed by a flat tyre. Notwithstanding that I managed to work my way up from 20th to 15th place, a climb up through the ranks that Anthony continued to develop. During his last pit stop we experienced a problem with the refuelling installation, which costs us even more lost time. So to finish in fifth place is a pretty rewarding result, but rest assured we are out to achieve even better results in the coming rounds!"

Rendezvous next weekend for the following race of the FIA GT Series at Circuit Zolder!