Le Castellet, France – Thanks to the huge comeback set by Mauro Calamia and Francesco Sini during the second race of the International GT Open, hosted in France at Paul Ricard circuit, the Solaris Motorsport Aston Martin conquered for the second time in the season the points zone. The English coupè was once again victim of a contact and following retire in the early Race 1, while on Sunday Race 2 the Vantage GT3 brought home the 8th place under the checkered flag, recovering 9 positions from the start.

On the track teather of the huge crash of Francesco Sini this winter, the Aston Martin fielded by Solaris Motorsport should have shown a step forward in performances but once again the black-orange Vantage suffered the new 2017 Michelin tyre used in the International GT Open. Since the free practice, the English coupè suffered a general lack of grip that slowed both drivers, impeding them to push to the limit.

As the same in Spa, a contact in the first eventful laps forced to retire the Vantage GT3, causing also a little fire principle on the front of the car, due to a blocked brake pad. Luckily, Race 2 was completely different: Mauro Calamia moved up soon on P12 thanks a perfect start. After having battled all the first stint long near the Top10 positions, the mandatory pit stop rejoined Sini on track ninth, become eight after a good move of the Pescara native driver on the West McLaren and maintained until the checkered flag.

“Once again we couldn’t finish Race 1 due a contact, it’s the second time in two races that someone crashes into our car. It can happen, but it’s disappointing. We are not fast enough yet, our car has some trouble with the 2017 tyres but on Sunday, anyway, we had a good race and we recovered a lot of positions. Mauro did as usual an awesome start, the rest was just a clean race, without any sort of trouble. Finally. It means we have the right potential.” commented Francesco Sini.

“We are not ok as we would like. Most of all we need more grip, we lost too much time in the slow turns in comparison to the others. Despite that I’m almost satisfied about the race on Sunday, it isn’t the position we want but, if we consider where we were at the start, it was a good point. We need to work more on the setup, we need to use better these tyres. The team is working hard and I know it, but we are not able to realize all our potential. In a so high championship level, every little mistake could cost you a lot of positions.” said Mauro Calamia.

“We had a bad weekend but once again we found the way to react and put on track a good race on Sunday. We are not at the level we would like, before next round we will have a test session in order to try different setup solutions hoping to find a way to use these tyres at the best way with the Aston. It’s a tricky season and lately the luck is not with us. To be forced to stop our race twice in the first laps deprived us of fundamental km, a lot of data and experience that could have helped us. But we are not using to give up, so next time we will try again!” said Roberto Sini, Solaris Motorsport Team Principal.