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Gábor Tim: One victory and two forgettable races in Poland

The fourth weekend of this year’s FIA Swift Cup Europe took place on the race track in Poznan. Gábor Tim, the leader of the championship arrived with a 25-point advantage and had the chance of increasing this advantage. He finished fourth in the first race, he won the second one and was pushed-off in the last race.

The race track in Poznan, which is a not too modern, but the more enjoyable tarmac, was unknown to a part of the drivers. Tim has also never been on this track before, so he began to familiarise with the track on the test day on Thursday. The direction seemed right on Friday, because he won the first practice session, but finished only sixth after the second practice session.

„This year I have never trained with new tyres and I have long been hoping that I could have new tyres before the first qualy to train for the qualification. However, this time nothing happened as it should have happened and the car became undriveable. We could not find out the reason and I was not even near those lap times which I did with worn tyres.” – explained Tim after Friday’s trainings.

At the qualy all could enter the track with four new tyres according to the rules. Tim only did one measured lap, because he did not want to over-use his tyres. He finished in P4 which he was not satisfied with.

„It is the second year, that I have been racing with the new 1.4 turbo Swift in the Championship, at the new tyres gave an extra grip at each and every place and it was important to save them for the first race. I purposely only did one lap to start the first race with the best possible tyres. But somehow it did not work out. I had to fight under-steering and we do not find the reason of that. This worries me because of the first race as well.” – said Gábor Tim after the qualy.

Just as he saw it in advance, the pace was not right during the first race. Tim started from P4 finished the race in the same position. He could keep the pace with the other drivers, but had no chance to overtake.

„I do not understand it. I was nearly two seconds slower than during the trainings. I went after the others, but I could neither attack, nor overtake. At the end the tyres were worn enough and I was a bit faster, but not the extent that I could. I hope that find out something for the second race, because this is not good this way, I want to fight for the win and not only drive around.” – said Tim after the first race.

The tyres from the first race remained on his car for the second race and the result came. He started from the fifth position and came to the second position, but until then Ádám Lengyel, who was the leader, had an advantage of more than 5 seconds. This is what Tim worked off in the remaining 10 seconds and he even managed to take the lead and win the race in the last lap.

„As if I was driving another car. While in the first race I could do laps of 1:52, now lap times of 50 came one after the other. The difference was as far apart as the poles. When I was in 2nd position, I thought that this is as far as I can go. I didn’t even see Ádám Lengyel, because he was so far away. But the car went so well, and I caught the rhythm and began delivering fastest laps. Towards the end I saw Ádám and this gave me more pace. In the last lap I managed to catch up with him, he made a mistake and I could overtake him.” – explained Tim how he could win.

According to the rules the pilots could get two more new tyres and these were mounted onto the first axle of Tim’s car. He began the race from the eighth position and could advance to the fifth position. He was trying to advance further after a long safety car part, but he was pushed onto the run-off area, he slipped and even drove into a huge pit. The flagman waved him in his damaged car at the seventh position.

„I do not know, if we made the right decision, but I had the new tyres mounted, because I was still hoping that we can solve the grip problems with new tyres on. Now the situation was a bit better, I could get forward. The Safety Car had been in for a very long time after an accident and we had 10 minutes left from the 25-minute-race. Two Austrian pilots at the front cooperated, one drove off, when the SC left the track and the other held us off for a long time. This was against the rules. The other drivers kept overtaking him and when I got next to him, he simply pushed me onto the run-off area and I left the race-track. I thought there would be no bigger problems and kept my foot on the gas, but I drove into some sort of a pit, which basically tore off the front part of the car. I was praying that the car reaches the finish line, which I finally managed to do and I finished seventh. It is a pity, because I could have finished in the top three. But such sentences do not make much sense in motorsports.” – said Tim as a summary after the third race.

Gábor Tim lost a few points from his advantage, but he is still leading the Championship which continues on the Slovakiaring between 13th-15-th August.

The standing of the Championship after four races:

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