GT1 World/GT3 Europe, Nürburgring – Championship Race/Race 2 Report
First Win Of The Season For AF Corse

It was an aggressive start to the second race of the weekend at the Nürburgring, with two cars out before the completion of two corners following a coming together between the #37 Münnich Mercedes of Nicky Pastorelli, the #33 Team WRT Audi of Oliver Jarvis and the #2 Hexis McLaren of Gregoire Demoustier; the Audi and the McLaren taking no further part, and the SLS limping back to the pits with a puncture.

Jarvis was in no doubt as to who was to blame, and immediately headed for the Münnich to ask for an explanation for Pastorelli’s manoeuvre. The #37 managed to get back to the pits and took on a new tyre, but resumed a lap down.

Despite this incident the safety car was not required and Peter Kox led the field round the track in the #25 Reiter Lamborghini, crossing the line at the end of Lap 1 0.743s ahead of Toni Vilander in the #3 AF Corse Ferrari, who had gained eight places in the first five kilometres of the race. Laurens Vanthoor was third in the #32 Audi, but he too suffered a puncture and was heading for the pits after three laps.

The GT3 leader, Dominik Baumann, was running an excellent fifth overall in the #101 Heico-Gravity-Charouz Mercedes and had the #150 AF Corse Ferrari of Giuseppe Cirò right behind him; but behind the two GT3 leaders was the #1 Hexis McLaren of Fred Makowiecki, and he was anxious to get stuck into the GT1 fight ahead. Baumann was in fact stuck behind the#18 Vita4one BMW of Yelmer Buurman, who was himself trying to get past the #38 Münnich SLS of Marc Basseng for third. Makowiecki took the Ferrari on Lap 6, but was then stuck behind the GT3 Mercedes for several more laps. Eventually, his frustration got the better of him and a rash dive to the inside saw the McLaren knock the Mercedes into a spin on Lap 12; a move that would see the #1 handed a drive-through penalty.

By this point of the race Kox led by 1.2s from Vilander, with Basseng a further four seconds back.

Cirò led GT3 by six seconds from the #105 Russian Bear Ferrari of Kirill Ladygin.

The four-way fight for second involving numbers 38, 18, 1 and 150 continued apace (the drive-through not having yet been issued) and on Lap 15 Makowiecki took third from Buurman. Cirò followed the McLaren through and briefly held fourth overall, but the BMW quickly regained the spot.

The pit window was now open and several cars had already stopped to change drivers. Peter Kox stayed out until the end of Lap 16 before handing over to Stefan Rosina – leaving Vilander in the lead – but a problem with the starter motor cost valuable seconds and the Lamborghini had dropped to fourth behind Filip Salaquarda (#3), Markus Winkelhock (#38) and Michael Bartels (#18) by the time the pit window closed.

Rosina was eager to regain lost ground and took third from Bartels before the BMW’s tyres reached full temperature; but despite closing on Winkelhock at a rapid rate, the German driver had just enough in his car by then to repel the Slovak’s challenge.

In GT3, Gaetano Ardagna Perez led in the #150 Ferrari, but it wasn’t long before Max Buhk was taking huge chunks out of the lead in the seemingly unstoppable #101 Mercedes; the class lead eventually changing on Lap 23.

Stef Dusseldorp took the #1 McLaren’s drive-through on Lap 21, but just two laps later was pulling over with gearbox failure; his and Makowiecki’s title challenge all but mathematically over.

And that was pretty much how it stayed until the end – Salaquarda staying several seconds clear of Winkelhock until the flag, with the German finally breaking Rosina’s challenge and pulling a few seconds clear.

“We have been world champions in Free Practice but have not been able to quite get the race win but today we did and it is a great feeling,” said Toni Vilander. “I probably won’t be at Donington for the final race of the season because of schedules so I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the teams and organisers. It’s been a pleasure to be part of this championship, the racing has been really fair.”

“The start of the race was very critical, I had a small tap with the Audi but luckily nothing happened to the car," said Marc Basseng. "I managed to secure third position and fought to find some speed. The car had good traction but, like times before, the car was too slow, I’m surprised we managed to be on the podium.

“At the pit stop we were very quick and Markus took over and did a fantastic job. He managed to stay in front of the Reiter Lamborghini which was great. With this finish we now lead the drivers’ championship, only by one point but it’s good. We go to final race at Donington in front but it’s going to be really stressful.”

“We made a mistake with the pitstop and we had to do another lap before coming in which lost us track position, it was a mistake,” said Peter Kox. “Anyway it was a fantastic result for the Reiter Engineering team, I think they needed that. I am looking forward to Donington, I know the track well. I set the Formula 3000 lap record there before it was resurfaced. It’s a really great circuit and I have a feeling it will suit the car well.”

The only drama in the closing stages came when a message on the timing screen indicated that the pitstops for the GT1 AF Corse Ferraris were being investigated – apparently for throwing tyres – but nothing came of this and the result stood.

In GT3, Baumann and Buhk celebrated their title in fine style by adding a final race win to their impressive record, but things weren’t so happy for the second placed Ferrari of Cirò and  Perez; their car being excluded for a homologation issue. This left the #111 rhino’s Leipert Gallardo of David Mengesdorf and Hari Proczyk in second place, and the #114 Novadriver Audi of Ni Amorim and Cesar Campanico in third.

“Both me and Dominik were confident throughout the year and today’s win was a nice way to end the perfect weekend for the whole team and to finish with both championships from the 2012 season," said Max Buhk.

“We are both young guys who didn’t know each other before the season but we have built a very good friendship," added Dominik Baumann. "Max had a really good season in his first year in GT and for me it’s the second. There are not of people that can say ‘we are GT3 European champions’ in their second season."

"It’s has been a great season for us, we did not compete in the first two races but what we have done has been really competitive,” said Hari Proczyk. “The last two races, here and in Moscow, have been our best I would say. The race today was really quite hard because we had some problem with the cars, it was very hard to drive, so I’m really happy we here on the podium with the third place.

“I think for the season we’ve done well, we only had two bad results, one in Moscow when the engine blew up and one yesterday when we had a puncture. I’m proud of them team and think we’ve done well. We are looking forward to next year.”

The Nürburgring result meant that Winkelhock and Basseng had assumed the lead in the title race, by one point from Bartels and Buurman (143 v 142), and there were now just two teams realistically in the race. All will be decided at Donington Park this weekend.

MH