FIA GT1 Championship

Mad Croc Racing wins Spa Qualifying Race *UPDATE*

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

Jos Menten and Xavier Maassen took their first victory in the FIA GT1 World Championship this afternoon. In the one-hour long race the Mad Croc Racing duo managed to keep all their rivals behind and secure their and the teams first victory in the championship.

At the start Menten kept the lead going into the La Source hairpin and onto the Raidillon. Behind him Andrea Bertolini came into the pits and retired at the spot. The second Mad Croc Racing car hit the nr 22 Sumo Power Nissan and came back into the pit with a left rear puncture.

As the cars came racing to the finish straight the Safety Car sign on the timing screens went on and Menten briefly slowed down, before the message disappeared and the track status went to green again. No clue what happened.

Three laps into the race the nr 14 Phoenix Corvette stopped at the Bus Stop chicane and was pushed to safety by the marshals. Menten meanwhile couldn’t get rid of Kechele in the Reiter Lamborghini, the gap less than two seconds. Dominik Schwager was third, a couple of seconds down on the two leaders.

Thomas Accary was the next to hit problems and the French driver also abandoned his Hexis Aston Martin in the pit. On lap 11 Schwager and the nr 8 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin got into a fight that the German driver lost. The Lamborghini bounced over the grass at Les Combes and the Aston as well as the nr13 Phoenix Corvette passed him. Fortunately for Schwager the pit window opened in the same lap and he immediately came in for his stop.

Two laps later all cars had made their stop already. Maassen was leading the race for Mad Croc Racing, with Zonta still very close behind him. Mike Hezemans in the nr 13 Corvette was already ten seconds down on the leader.

As the two leaders fought for the lead the gap between first and second went up and down, but Maassen was able to keep the Lamborghini behind. Behind them several cars swapped positions, but nobody was able to challenge the leaders.

On the final lap Romain Grosjean lost control of the nr 6 Matech Ford GT and went into the tyre wall at Blanchimont. A local yellow warned the other drivers, but it did not interfere with the race result.

After 59 minutes, 59.576 seconds Xavier Maassen crossed the line to take his first victory. Ricardo Zonta finished second for Reiter, while Mike Hezemans took third place on his return to Phoenix Racing. The Dutchman then stopped on the track on his in-lap after the Corvette’s alarms went off and the engine stopped. The car did return to parc fermé however.

Race 2 will take place tomorrow morning.

* UPDATE *

After the race the nr 13 Phoenix Racing Corvette failed to pass scrutineering as the scrutineers were unable to extract enough fuel from the car. As a result the car was stripped from its third place.