FIA GT Championship

Jetalliance Racing: P3 for Wendlinger/Sharp in Zolder

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

A great deal of bad luck for Jetalliance Racing today at the European finale of the 2008 FIA GT Championship in Zolder: Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp in their Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9 finished the ninth race in third only. “Only” because Ryan Sharp threw away a possible race win with an off-track excursion. But their charge to catch up which followed was worth seeing!

Victory in Belgium went to the pairing of Andrea Bertolini/Michael Bartels (ITA/GER/Maserati).

P2 in yesterday’s qualifying, on pole position today. The reason: pole setter Allan Simonsen had overtaken under yellow flags on his fastest lap and was hence relegated ten places on the starting grid, as was Vincent Vosse.

Karl Wendlinger therefore started the race from pole position, immediately taking the lead ahead of Mike Hezemans in his Corvette. He was subsequently able to extend it continuously. Even having to lap many of the slower GT2 cars did not hamper him doing so. After a fast and faultless opening stint, the Austrian handed over to his partner Ryan Sharp with an advantage of roughly six seconds after fifty minutes (32 laps).

Then the moment of shock: Sharp slid off the track on his second lap, touching the tyre barriers, losing a lot of time, but able to continue. The result of the “excursion”: about 30 seconds lost, down to sixth place! Sharp set very quick times afterwards, but was unable to get past Miguel Ramos for a long time – but on lap 43 it finally happened – Ryan passed the Maserati driver with a daring move, up to P4. The fightback had begun . . . .

And Sharp makes up second after second, he hands back over to Karl Wendlinger with 35 minutes to go in fourth place – trailing the leader by 17 seconds . . .

Wendlinger sounds the final charge in his final stint, he works his way up to third, is even within striking distance to Hezemans in second place near the end of the race, but also has to fend off several attacks by Allan Simonsen who gets increasingly stronger in the closing stages – which he manages to do: The Austrian crosses the finish line in third after two hours.

Another top result for Jetalliance Racing – although the fourth win of the season would also have been possible today . . .

Karl Wendlinger: “Ryan’s mistake cost us more than twenty seconds, in the end we were just ten seconds behind. In view of this mishap I’m satisfied with third place. Unfortunately our tyres were not holding up as expected. Both during my first stint, when I was unable to gain an advantage of more than six seconds, and also subsequently, when Ryan and I had to push. That’s why it was impossible to close in on Hezemans in the end. The tyres were already finished by then.”