FIA GT Championship

SRT and AF Corse triumphant at Monza FIA-GT (updated)

© DPPI

A decisive first pit stop combined with a fantastic drive by Christophe Bouchut and Xavier Maassen gave the Belgian SRT team and their Corvette C6R a fantastic victory at Monza. In what ended up being a 100% dry race after a very wet warm-up in the morning, the lack and white Corvette ended up ahead of the #2 Vitaphone Maserati and the Gigawave Aston Martin in an entertaining race. In GT2 a very strong race by Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard put their Porsche 997 ahead of a battery of Ferrari 430 GTs in a very close race. However, the Prospeed team has been disqualified after a refuelling infringement so the race win is in the end for the 50 AF Corse car of Vilander/Bruni

The race had a clean start with no incidents at the dreaded first chicane and as Alex Müller on the 36 JetAllaiance Aston pulled away followed by Bouchut (3) Simonsen (10), Negrao(2) and Fässler (5) the rest of the GT1 field had to drive through a swarm of Ferraris which had qualified ahead of them in the mixed weather session yesterday. Westbrook on the 61 Prospeed Porsche also had a slight advantage with a few GT1 cars between him and the Ferraris which he used wisely to create a slight advantage on the track.

The Ferrari battle was very close and both AF Corse cars were battling both CR Scuderia430 Gts as well as the Scuderia Ecosse, both BMS and the AE PeCom car where Matías Russo was delivering a very good race. On the front ogf the field Simonsen on the Gigawave car was pushing hard and got second, only to lose it on lap 11 after an off in Parabolica that forced the team into a strategy change with an early pit stop in lap 13. The #1 Vitaphone Maserati also chose for an early pit stop strategy and brough Bertolini in on lap 12 but this time it would not pay off as well as in Silverstone and Bartels-bertolini would not make it to the podium.

While Westbrook was in the GT2 lead three of the Ferraris started to pull away from the rest, both AF Corse cars and the Scuderia Ecosse 430GT started a battle of their own which would lead them into their firt pit stop just after lap 20 pretty even on the track. As the main round of first pit stops were about to start the 36 JetAlliance still led the SRT Corvette , 2 Vitaphone Maserati and 5 Phoenix Corvette with no major issues. At this point the problems started for the IPB Lamborghini which had been running in the top 10 but was forced to go back into the pits with different mechanical problems.

© DPPI

With the first pit stops completed (last one to come in was Negrao on the #2 Vitaphone Maserati) and at the half race point, the SRT car was on the lead and it soon became apparent that Lichtner-Hoyer on the 36 car could not keep up the rhythm of his team mate and quickly fell to third behind the Maserati now in the hands of Miguel Ramos. I GT2 there was a brief change of lead as well when both the 50 AF Corse car (Bruni) and the 56 CR Scuderia (Bell) overtook the 61 Porsche (Collard) during its pit stop, a decisive attack from the Frenchman and some unexpected GT1 traffic interference by Gastón Mazzacane put the Prospeed car back on top, where it would stay until the end of the race.

As the race advanced, the 36 car dropped further back to 5th while the Gigawave Aston was performing a very strong recovery from their early incident thanks to Philipp Peter and Allan Simonsen’s consistent stints, ovrtaking the 36 Aston for 5th after 40 laps. Lap 47 would bring more bad news for Jet Alliance when their 33 car which had managed to climb up to 4th stalled during the pit stop and went down a few spots down in the classification.

The second pit stops did not bring any surprises and Westbrook took back to the track 4 seconds ahead of both AF Corse Ferraris, extending his lead slightly and stabilizing a GT2 race which was Porsche all the way despite the outnumbering Ferrari entries. After the race however a refuelling infirngement costed Prospeed the race and the win was inherited by Bruni-Vilander on the #50 AF Corse Ferrari. In the major class bouchut never lost his lead and had a very well executed pit stop on lap 52 to keep in front until the end of the race. A fantastic second stint of Simonsen brough the Gigawave Aston to 3rd at the chequered flag behind a very quick Vitaphone #2 Maserati which took 2nd place in the hands of Negrao-Ramos.

Provisional final results:

POS NO CL DRIVERS CAR TIME LAPS GAP KPH
1 3 GT1 Bouchut/Maassen Corvette Z06 2:00:34.443 66 190.10
2 2 GT1 Negrao/Ramos Maserati MC 12 2:00:58.995 66 24.552 189.46
3 10 GT1 Simonsen/Peter Aston Martin DB9 2:01:27.010 66 52.567 188.73
4 6 GT1 Gollin/Hezemans Corvette Z06 2:01:28.688 66 54.245 188.69
5 1 GT1 Bertolini/Bartels Maserati MC 12 2:01:48.635 66 1:14.192 188.17
6 4 GT1 Kumpen/Longin Saleen S7 2:00:39.811 65 1 LAP 187.08
7 33 GT1 Wendlinger/Sharp Aston Martin DB9 2:01:06.042 65 1 LAP 186.40
8 7 GT1 Franchi/Vosse Saleen S7 2:01:36.325 65 1 LAP 185.63
9 15 GT1 Daoudi/Aucott Maserati MC 12 2:01:00.836 64 2 LAPS 183.66
10 50 GT2 Vilander/Bruni Ferrari F430 2:02:03.917 64 2 LAPS 182.08
11 51 GT2 Montanari/Biagi Ferrari F430 2:02:04.264 64 2 LAPS 182.07
12 62 GT2 Babini/Davies Ferrari F430 2:02:10.995 64 2 LAPS 181.91
13 37 GT1 Tuero/Mazzacane Ferrari 550 Maranello 2:02:24.753 64 2 LAPS 181.57
14 77 GT2 Ruberti/Malucelli Ferrari F430 2:00:34.619 63 3 LAPS 181.45
15 78 GT2 Rigon/Camathias Ferrari F430 2:00:47.029 63 3 LAPS 181.14
16 56 GT2 Kirkaldy/Bell Ferrari F430 2:00:55.009 63 3 LAPS 180.94
17 55 GT2 Mullen/Sugden Ferrari F430 2:01:12.019 63 3 LAPS 180.51
18 12 GT1 Kaufmann/Talkanitsa Corvette C5-R 2:01:24.769 63 3 LAPS 180.20
19 95 GT2 Russo/Perez Companc Ferrari F430 2:01:37.768 63 3 LAPS 179.88
20 57 GT2 Del Monte/Moser Ferrari F430 2:01:51.062 63 3 LAPS 179.55
21 60 GT2 Forsten/Palttala Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) 2:00:56.610 61 5 LAPS 175.15
22 59 GT2 Williams/Ashburn Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) 2:01:23.688 61 5 LAPS 174.50
23 101 G2 Kuppens/Leinders Gillet Vertigo 2:01:45.722 61 5 LAPS 173.97
24 99 GT2 Coggiola/Coggiola/Coggiola Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) 2:01:52.455 61 5 LAPS 173.81
25 8 GT1 Kox/Rusinov Lamborghini Murcielago 1:20:46.866 42 24 LAPS 180.48
26 36 GT1 Muller/Lichtner-Hoyer Aston Martin DB9 1:15:15.057 41 25 LAPS 189.13
27 5 GT1 Fassler/Deletraz Corvette Z06 1:15:15.614 41 25 LAPS 189.10
28 111 G2 Edwards/Konopka Saleen S7 48:48.653 26 40 LAPS 184.76
29 103 G2 Lacko/Jirasek Mosler MT 900 57:59.938 26 40 LAPS 155.49
30 13 GT1 Piccini/Menten Saleen S7 13:25.796 7 59 LAPS 179.78
31 22 GT1 Simoncini/Strada/Morini Chrysler Viper GTS R 15:41.978 7 59 LAPS 153.79
32 104 G2 Heyer/Vojtech Mosler MT 900 32:09.532 4 62 LAPS 42.65
Fastest Laps
36 GT1 Muller/Lichtner-Hoyer Aston Martin DB9 1:46.104 8 122.13mph 196.55
61 GT2 Westbrook/Collard Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) 1:50.646 34 117.11mph 188.48
111 G2 Edwards/Konopka Saleen S7 1:51.285 13 116.44mph 187.40