Mike Rockenfeller - FIA GT Championship Monza win

FIA GT Championship

Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Italy

10 April 2005

 

Mike Rockenfeller had a victorious start to his FIA GT Championship career.
The German driver, now living in Monaco, didn't hold back in his series
debut at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy on 10 April. At 21, he
was the youngest of the 62 drivers in the field, but that didn't faze him.
He qualified second in the GT2 class, took the class lead at the start of
the race and cruised to the win.

 

Rockenfeller qualified the No. 66 GruppeM Racing Porsche 996 GT3 RSR second
in GT2 with a lap time of one minute 51.731 seconds on the 5.77-kilometre
circuit. He gambled on a late qualifying effort because of changing weather
conditions, but was unable to find a clear lap.

 

"It was raining and then it started to dry at the end of the first
qualifying session," he said. "We decided to wait until it was 10 minutes to
go, so I could do five laps. Every lap, I had traffic really, really bad, so
I had no chance for a good lap. The second session it was raining, so no one
could improve their times."

 

Rockenfeller started the race, taking the class lead on the first lap. He
increased his lead to four seconds during the first hour of the two-hour
40-minute race, then handed off to Marc Lieb of Ludwigsburg, Germany. Lieb
maintained the class lead during his hour stint, despite an ill-handling car
resulting from reversed rear tires. Rockenfeller drove the final stint,
moving to seventh overall and increasing the class lead to six seconds
before slowing for a photo finish with the second-place GruppeM Porsche.

 

"In my first stint, I thought I had a problem with the tires, so I asked the
guys to come in a little earlier than we'd planned. We were already in the
window for our first pit stop. I did not know that there was oil on the
track, but the timing was very good because the other cars stayed out and
lost some time on the oil," Rockenfeller reported. "In my last stint, we got
six seconds ahead, but then we slowed for a photo finish with the sister
car. I didn't take any risks – the last three or four laps, I did really
slow!"

 

Rockenfeller noted the No. 66 Porsche will carry an extra 20 kilograms of
weight in the next FIA GT race, at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in
France on 1 May.