Fabian Schiller had surely imagined his participation at the second event of the Blancpain GT Series in Monza differently. The Troisdorf resident and his team mates Dominik Baumann (Austria) and Edward Sandström (Sweden) already had their difficulties in keeping up with their competition’s lap times during the training sessions accompanying the endurance race on the 5,793km long race track north of Milan. During the race on Sunday, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with the number 85 was then involved in a starting accident through no fault of its own after only a few seconds. The team HTP Motorsport then had to take the sports car out of the race prematurely, before Schiller even had the chance to get involved in the events.

The international trio already had to realize that it wasn’t going to be easy to achieve a top position on the high-speed track in the royal park of Monza during the free training on Saturday morning due to the high power-density. Their fastest lap was 1:48,789 minutes, which meant a backlog of about nine tenths of a second to the leading driver but was also only enough for the 24th place of the overall 52 vehicles. After the HTP team had changed some things about the Mercedes, the first qualifying went a little better and the Stuttgart sports car came in 14th. The competition topped it off too though and it was only enough for the 27th starting position in the end due to the combination of all three qualifyings. 

The three hour race on Sunday afternoon started with a moment of shock: In the top group, a Bentley Continental from the second starting row touched the Lamborghini Huracan next to it, which caused the car to race crossways through the field and caused a mass collision, which eliminated more than a dozen cars from the race. While the second car of the HTP-team was able to swerve onto the meadow and then drive an impressive catching-up race to third position and a place on the podium, the Mercedes with number 85 got hit at the right front.

For starting driver Dominik Baumann it initially looked like he was able to continue the race, but it already became clear at the first routine stop with driver’s change, that the damages to body and chassis were probably more serious than hoped for. Edward Sandström then started his stint on the track but had to park the 550 HP strong race car in the stall towards the middle of the race due to a damaged wheel suspension. This was especially bitter for Fabian Schiller, because the 19-year-old Rhinelander didn’t even get the chance to take over the GT3-sports car and maybe drive as far forward as the sister vehicle.

Norbert Brückner praised his team nonetheless. “Everyone has made the best out of a tricky situation and got better throughout the race”, said the team leader from Altendiez close to Limburg. “The drivers stayed out of all problems as best as they could and did overall great jobs.” Schiller was able to find something positive in the end as well. “During qualifying it was pretty incredible to only be on 27th position with a backlog of only eight tenths”, said the Bonn-native. “But we did a lot better during the race, which has been impressively proven by our team mates with the number 84. I’m now going to forget about the weekend in Monza quickly. We have a fantastic car and are able to drive among the forefront which is still our goal!”

The next two events of the Blancpain GT Series are going to take the teams and drivers to Great Britain. First, the second of five sprint races (60 minutes) is going to take place on the only 3,703km long track of Brands Hatch in the English county Kent on the 6th and 7th of May. Only a week later, about 200km away in Silverstone, the traditional Grand Prix track north-west of London is going to be the location of the next endurance race.

Text: F. Wagner / Schiller Motorsport – Fotos: Blancpain GT Series