Three weeks ago Cristian Haba from RPM did a great race under the rain at A1 ring, here is his great race report about the event:

First I had started the preparation for this race a bit early since I knew it was raining and I had zero experience in the rain with GT Pro cars especially in these semi long races. So practice was pretty intensive and and I experimented with the setup to balance the car for the speed and handling element of the track which are both set to and extreme, as in really long straights and harsh 90 and winding turns. In the end a relatively high downforce setup and relatively stiff springs yielded the best results.

About the qualy, one of the most successful drivers in the challenge untill now the ace driver commented:

This is always very nerve wracking since you only get the flying lap and there are many places where you can lose time very easily and if you push just a meter long in the braking distances a half a second can be gone in an instant. However I pulled of a pretty good lap and was quite happy to take the pole with it, the car felt very stable perhaps even a bit more stable than in offline practice for some reason, all of which gave me good confidence for the race duration. I want to congratulate my team mate Aponte for the effort he put forth seeing as how he had a much more limited time for practice than I did, and also Tim for his sportsmanship regarding the last race at Watkins. Great time in the Saleen man.

And then in race the unexpected problem while pitstopping:

At this point I remember how I made my race 10 time harder at Watkins Glen by messing up the start, so I focused on my start off the last turn and made sure to keep the door closed if I had not gotten the start I needed. That was not the case, I kept pace well and Time was just far enough back so that a pass would be a bit too adventurous for both of us in the first corner. From this point I started to grind out some laps and get into a groove that I felt was comfortable, I tried to push for the fastest lap knowing that maximum points would be necessary to go beyond the GMT-DHR crew. I managed to pull a 10 sec or so gap to Tim, who fought very well in the Saleen keeping me very honest through out the first part of the race. Before making my pitstop I had a pretty close encounter with Neil Gault imo, had to be very alert to make a clean pass at Jochen just before the pit entrance. Then here's where it all goes wrong. I still haven't had all my nerves in check as this is still a new experience for me, and in the rush of adjustin my fuel capacity I completely forgot to change the tires to slicks.

After going out of the pits I realised Tim had stayed out and extra lap, presumably in clear air and he made up a sizeable part of the gap and he was but 2 or 3 seconds behind me and gaining on me. At this point I was getting frustrated because I was driving pretty well and the car just seemed to lack in speed compared to Tim's car. Then I heard over the team radio that my teamate had gone out on slicks too, and then it hit me as well, IM ON %*$(&#$ Slicks too!!!! At this point Tim was right behind me and he made the pass on me in the second turn after a good drive off turn one. I was able to follow him closely and make the pass again into turn 3 where we had some contact, he didnt see me and neither did I, the some more contanct into the Power horse due my slow entry speed with slicks, I think at that point his tires were at operating temperature and he was very set on passing me quickly to take full advantage of that, which is perfectly understandable. There was more contanct into Jochen which could have sent me tumbling but nothing happened thank God, I understand the locking up thats a pretty bumpy part of the circuit and im also glad Tim scrubbed off enough speed to not send me end over end. The next lap he followed me very closely and made the pass at Jochen again this time made it stick and proceeded to open up a gap. After the fight my car was left a bit ragged especially the tires, which in the wet will never get up to operating temperature and they were quite worn, I was struggling with some tire wear then and a couple of laps I was all over the place after keeping the gap to a respectable 2-3 secs. I was surprised to see Tim's car smoking on the front straight, having hind sight now maybe if I had kept close enough.... well that's just a maybe. Grats to Tim well deserved and good pressure, great first win for the Black Visors. Thanks to Chris for bringing the car home and such fine form with slicks as well, the RPM engineers and pit crew are getting re-educated as we speak so this incident doesnt happen again.

Anyway, with a great pace even with slicks under the Austrian rain he managed to remain in second and score great points for RPM.