GT3 Europe

Team Rosberg quickest in Zolder practice

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

The #4 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS was quickest out of twenty-five cars in the opening practice of the final round of the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship at Zolder this morning. After one hour there were Audi’s in positions 1, 3 and 4 with the ProSpeed Competition Porsche second quickest.

Twenty-five cars were ready this morning. Muehlner Motorsport completed its line-up with Raymond Narac joining Gilles Vannelet in the number 11, while Armand Fumal and Jerome Thiry, both from Belgium, will drive the team’s second car.

At five past nine in the morning the traffic light at the end of the pit lane went green and most cars immediately went out for their first practice runs. Gregory Guilvert spun his Sainteloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS at turn 9, but the French driver quickly rejoined the session.

Twenty minutes into the session it was the Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT #99 of Maxime Martin that had set the fastest lap time. The Belgian’s 1:32.393 was .218 seconds quicker than Fred Makowiecki’s fastest time in the #1 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 and 1.648 seconds quicker than the Sainteloc-Phoenix Racing #6 of Bruce Lorgere-Roux.

Soon after though it was Michael Ammermüller’s Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS that went quickest by setting a 1:31.321. The W-Racing Team (Belgian Audi Club) Audi of Enzo Ide and Greg Franchi – a guest entry this race – moved into second.

With just around twenty minutes left in the session the two Callaway Competition Corvettes both had a spin on different places on the track, while Jerome Demay spun his Sainteloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS into the gravel at turn 1 bringing out a local yellow. A few minutes later and with the help of the safety crew it was back on the road.

On the final lap – as the chequered flag was already being shown – it was Marco Holzer who put the ProSpeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 R in second place, still .974 seconds behind the Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS though.

The gap between second and fifth place was just a tenth of a second, with the sixth placed car another two tenths of a second further behind.