GT1 World

Ford GT quickest on day 1 at Portimao

© FRANCOIS FLAMAND / DPPI

Twenty-three cars took to the track in the first practice session of the seventh round of the FIA GT1 World Championship at the Portimao circuit in the Algarve, Portugal. The 80-minute session started on a damp track, but as the session progressed the track dried and times improved.

The grid saw several driver changes and new names in the championship. At Mad-Croc Racing Laurent Cazenave joined Perti Kuismanen in the Corvette, while in the second car of the team Julien Jousse joined Xavier Maassen. Xavier Maassen’s team mate from the previous rounds meanwhile moved back to the Reiter Lamborghini, replacing Ricardo Zonta in the number 25 car he shares with Frank Kechele. Bert Longin meanwhile stayed in Belgium to defend his Belcar Championship lead, the Belgian driver will be replaced by Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof, who raced the Alpina BMW in FIA GT3 this year and at Young Driver AMR Pedro Lamy joined Stefan Mücke, replacing Christoffer Nygaard thsi weekend.

After one hour and twenty minutes it was the Marc VDS Racing Ford GT of Maxime Martin and Bas Leinders that was quickest on the 4.7 km (2.92 mi) long circuit. The Belgian pair set a fastest lap time of 1:44.446 and completed 22 laps. Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels were second quickest in the practice session, just .182 seconds behind the Ford GT. Peter Dumbreck and Michael Krumm were .207 seconds behind Martin and Leinders in their Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R. The top 11 finished the session within nine tenths of a second, with the Pastorelli/Schwager Lamborghini Murcielago finishing 12th at 1.015 seconds.

As the sun continued to shine the track dried even further between free practice and Pre-Qualifying later in the day. In Pre-Qualifying however it was again a Ford GT that topped the time sheets. Martin and Leinders finished the Pre-Qualifying session in third place, 0.154 seconds behind the fastest Ford GT of the day, the Matech Competition number 5 of Thomas Mutsch and Richard Westbrook. The Matech car set a fastest time of 1:43.433. Vitaphone Racing Team’s Enrique Bernoldi and local driver Miguel Ramos split the two Ford’s after setting a 1:43.515, just .082 seconds slower than the Ford.

Behind the two Fords and the Maserati it was again the Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R of Dumbreck and Krumm, followed by the Phoenix Racing Corvette C6.R of Marc Hennerici and Alex Margaritis.
Best of the Aston Martin DBR9s was the number 9 of Makowiecki and Clairay, just a few hundredths of a second ahead of team mates Hirschi and Piccione. Young Driver AMR did not manage to impress in Pre-Qualifying and finished in 21st and 22nd place, the team having problems with the higher temperatures.