Having left the first ever round of the FIA European GT3 Championship at Silverstone with a win and a second place, Allan Simonsen found himself struggling at the second round of the series, in Oschersleben, Germany.

Joined again by Hector Lester in the JMB Ferrari 430GT, the Italian car would not be quite as at home around the twists and turns of the tricky German circuit, with the lack of high-speed bends hurting the car.

"I've never been here before but I don't have problems with new tracks" said Simonsen. I'm a quick learner and since Hector has been here before there is some data for us to go on."

The JMB Ferrari showed good pace in practice, but the lack of fourth and fifth gear corners would hurt their chances. A parity review had taken place since Silverstone and Aston Martin had certainly come up a winner, having received not only a significant boost to its aero package but a sequential gearbox as well. It was a clear after the two practice sessions, that fifth and sixth place would see the team struggle over the weekend.

Simonsen charged hard in qualifying to grab third place, but Lester could only manage 31st. Despite the difference in qualifying positions, team tactics would come into play with Lester starting from third, whilst Simonsen took his place in 31st.

Lester handed over to Simonsen in 31st place, who charged back through the field to grab tenth place. Not the result the team wanted but it did highlight some weaknesses in the dry Ferrari package.

Specifically, Ferrari had made a 19" rim for their road car, not the GT3 race car and since GT3 did not exactly fit with the Ferrari factory efforts little had been done to solve the problem – a problem that had not been apparent at Silverstone in the wet. In fact the rear rim was narrower than the front rim on the hard-charging Corvette Z06 GT3 car!

The duo fared little better in the first race, with Simonsen starting from 31st only to finish in the same position after handing over to Lester, dropping the pair to second in the championship, six points behind the leaders, Andrea Ceccato and Stefano Livio in the Dodge Viper Coupe.