| Car Collection Motorsport achieved a strong result at the sixth race weekend of the International GT Open Championship at the Red Bull Ring. Replacing the regular drivers who were unable to attend, Alexey Nesov and Maksim Kizilov competed in the ProAm class and impressed with consistent performances. The duo already showed promise in the free practice sessions. With second place overall and first place in class in the first practice session, as well as P6 overall and P3 in Pro-Am in the second practice session, the potential of the Porsche 911 GT3 R was evident early on. Even though Saturday’s qualifying session was a challenge for Kizilov, who started from 27th on the grid, the team worked its way up to 13th place overall and sixth place in class during the race, thus securing points. Things went even better on Sunday. Nesov put the Porsche in seventh place overall and P3 in the Pro-Am class in qualifying. In the race, he moved the car up to fourth place overall before handing over to Kizilov. Despite a five-second extension to the minimum pit stop time and tough competition, the duo crossed the finish line in ninth place overall and P3 on the podium in their class, thanks in part to a strong driving performance by Maksim Kizilov. For Kizilov, it was also the first international podium of his career. Alexey Nesov, driver: “The weekend went really well. The race came about at very short notice, but everyone in the team gave 100 percent. We were able to quickly adjust to the car and had a promising pace. Maksim also improved from session to session, which ultimately led to his first podium finish at international level. Overall, it was a very positive weekend.” Team manager Romina Schmidt: “We are very happy with the performance of our two drivers. Despite the short preparation time, they did an excellent job and achieved a strong result. Our team has once again shown that it can deliver top performance in any situation, which makes me very proud. The podium in the Pro-Am class is a well-deserved reward for the efforts of the drivers and the team.” |
