GT1 World

GT1 Nürburgring: Young Driver AMR wins again

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

After the turmoil at turn 1 in yesterday’s Qualifying Race the entry into the first corner in today’s Championship Race was less hectic. Unfortunately for Heger and Kuppens though they came together coming out of the corner and both cars spun into the grass. They rejoined but were already far behind.

As Turner and Hennerici pulled away from the rest of the field the teams behind them started to fight for fifth place, numerous touches were seen between the Lamborghini of Ricardo Zonta and the Hexis Aston Martin of Clivio Piccione. The two would soon be on the bumper of Thomas Mutsch’ Ford GT and he was soon rear-ended by Piccione.

A few laps later things went wrong into turn 1 again. Zonta locked his brakes and slid onto the Ford GT of Mutsch, both cars spun around and were passed by several cars. The stewards immediately started an investigation on the incident and the Reiter team’s number 25 car was given a drive through penalty later in the race.

After 14 laps race leader Darren Turner came in for his stop and handed over the Aston Martin to Tomas Enge. Phoenix Racing Carsport went into the pit in second place, but unfortunately for Alex Margaritis the team’s pit stop meant they dropped behind the number 24 Lamborghini of Christopher Haase, the Reiter team making a great stop.

Peter Dumbreck’s run of bad luck continued when he spun his Nissan. Ahead of the Scot Margaritis tried to make up the lost ground on Haase and by lap 18 he was half a second behind the Lamborghini.

Tomas Enge had no troubles and noone chasing him. With 20 minutes remaining in the race he was already 13.817 seconds clear of the rest of the field. The next group of cars, battling for positions 2 to 5, were within 2 seconds of each other. While Haase seemed to get some air in between him and Margaritis the Greek driver saw Jonathan Hirschi closing in in his rear view mirror.

One lap later and 16 minutes left in the race several marshal posts reported rain drops and indeed the track showed some signs of rain, but it never rained hard enough to give any of the teams problems.

The Matech drivers did hit trouble in the final fifteen minutes of the race. At four o’clock Henri Moser spun at turn 2 and was then hit by the Matech Ford of Richard Westbrook. Westbrook’s team mate Neel Jani spun his Ford on the same lap.

Westbrook got into trouble once more when he tangled with the Vitaphone Maserati of Enrique Bernoldi. Into turn 2 the British driver challenged the Brazilian and by turn 4 the two cars touched, sending the Maserati into a spin. Westbrook was penalized for the incident.

Further up the field Haase made contact with Margaritis at the chicane, but the Lamborghini maintained its second place in the race. Nicky Pastorelli in the number 38 Lamborghini did not maintain his position as he went off at turn 1, damaging his car.

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

Enge however had no problems at all and after 30 laps he crossed the finish in first place, much to the delight of the Young Driver AMR team. To celebrate his win the Czech did a donut in his Aston just after the finish. Christopher Haase secured the second place for Reiter, in another strong race for the Lamborghini. Margaritis finsihed in third place, unable to pass the Lamborghini after losing second place in the pit stops.

In the final lap Stefan Mücke managed to overtake the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 of Michael Bartels – which meant the Young Driver AMR driver moved up into fifth place.

Having started from the 22nd place on the grid the Hexis AMR car of Frederic Makowiecki and Yann Clairay made it back all the way to fifth place. Triple H Team Hegersport’s Longin and Pier Guidi made up twelve positions and finished ninth. Sumo Power GT’s Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter saw a strong run rewarded with an eighth place finish – the best placed Nissan GT-R, having started from sixteenth on the grid.

The next round of the FIA GT1 World Championship is scheduled for September 17-19 on the Portimao circuit in Portugal.

Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels lead the Drivers Championship after six rounds with 91 points. Thomas Mutsch is second with 77 points, while Darren Turner and Tomas Enge are now third with 65 points.

In the Teams Championship Vitaphone Racing Team has 121 points, Reiter is second with 95 points and Young Driver AMR has 91.
As mentioned before Phoenix Racing Carsport is no longer eligible to score team points.