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May 07, 2015
Published on tags: Supercup Philip Cullen PB Racing

 

One car effort around the streets of Monaco pays off as Cullen cashes in on a pair of top ten result.
Racing Aces PB field just one car with Philip Cullen, with teammate Adam Rouse not appearing at the Principality. The #37 car remained vacant for the event with no time to arrange for a reserve driver for the event.

Round Six - Monaco

Philip Cullen:
Qualifying: 11th
Feature Race: 10th
Sprint Race: 7th


While some way off his personal best, Philip's best time was enough to secure him P11 on the grid, his best starting position since Bahrain, breaking a streak of three fourteenth position qualifying efforts. His time kept him just within a second of the leader. Despite the short nature of the track, it produced a greater field spread with only the top fourteen within a second of the pole sitter.

An inauspicious start saw Cullen battling it out with the Wauters Automotive pair of Davids' Francic and Jundt. The former tapped the rear into turn one, causing some damage but not enough to impede the Irishman's race. For the first stint, he chased Positive Sim-Racing driver Luis Mesa. Both pitted at the same time and although he missed his marks, Philip managed to squeeze out just in front of the Spaniard.

Tyre wear was not as aggressive as expected and thus Philip didn't run as long as he could have. An extra lap on the options by Jundt allowed the Swiss driver to jump Cullen at the pit-stop. The evenly matched pair kept a similar gap throughout the second part of the race, with eleventh position becoming tenth when Tom van der Voort retired.

A much better start from Cullen in the sprint race kept him safely within the top-ten. After navigating an incident on the exit of turn one, he enjoyed a race long cat in mouse with Luis Mesa again and Christof Schgoer. The tight confines of Monaco didn't offer an opportunity to make a safe move as the field bunched up behind the battle for second. Seventh position, just reward after a difficult day in managing engine wear.

His first double top-ten of the season long overdue for the Irishman who has shown flashes of brilliance with poor luck. The team will be looking to build on the positive results around the streets of Monaco and look to come out swinging around the altogether different challenge that is Montreal.