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Barba / Kaffer win 2010 GT Open debut for AF Corse in Valencia

© International GT Open / gtsport.es

Alvaro Barba and Pierre Kaffer are the first winners of the 2010 International GT Open, as they imposed their AF Corse Ferrari F430 in the opening round in Valencia, in an action-packed race, made more difficult by humid and slippery track conditions and the traffic generated by the 43 cars in contention, the newly-created Spanish-German pair fought a close and lively duel with the Aurora Ferrari F430 of the Portuguese pair Alvaro Parente-Francisco Cruz Martins. Excellent third was another Ferrari F430, the EdilCris-ran machine of Raffaele Giammaria-Enrico Toccacelo.

The first Porsche, the Autorlando’s car of Lietz-Roda, was fourth but the German make and the Italian team had a great satisfaction, as their new GT3 car won the GTS category, with Thomas Gruber and Dimitris Deverikos, beating the Ferraris of Couceiro-Frezza and Ortelli-Dayrault.

With the track still very humid but most cars on slicks, problems begin even before the start, with Matthews and Livio spinning in formation lap. Poleman Dayrault starts from the pits because of a misinterpretation of the rules regarding the start procedure. Cortés takes the lead, but the safety car is out before completion of lap 1 after a collision between Gerber and Niarchos.

At restart, Cortés takes the lead but he will be passed by Barba, Parente and Gené in the next laps. Starts then a close duel between the two Alvaros, Barba and Parente, for the lead, who pass each other a couple of times, in a duel made even more exciting by lappings. With Gené in fourth, it is Peter, Toccacelo, Deverikos, Wiser, De Castro, Roda and Ceccato, while Narac ends his race in the gravel in lap 5.

While the two leaders take a serious advantage (over 20”) on the pack, Peter passes the Sunred of Gené for fourth and Roda, Couceiro and Moro open the bal of driver changes. After the mandatory stop, Kaffer leads on the AF Ferrari 9 seconds ahead of Cruz Martins. Third is Broniszewski, Giammaria, Guerrero, Amaral, Lietz and Gruber, who leads in GTS with the Autorlando Porsche.

The beautiful debut race of the Aston Martin Vantage is ruined when Guerrero makes a slight off-track and then has to serve a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane, while Giammaria takes third and Lietz fourth, with Broniszewski excellent fifth, ahead of the Autorlando Porsche GT3 of Gruber, who wins the GTS class in its debut.

Find full results of the race here.