FIA GT3 European Championship
Monza – Race Two
 
Once again the weather played an important part in the result of a race, as the fourth round of the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship took place on a Monza circuit which was damp, then drying, and then wet. But the race result was decided not on the track but in the office of the stewards, as post-race penalties demoted the first two cars to take the chequered flag. That handed the race win to the #21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis, with second place going to the #1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3 of James Ruffier and Arnaud Peyroles; the #20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of championship leaders Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch being demoted from second to third.

Even before the race got under way it was bad news for the #20 Ford GT, when the stewards decided to move them back five places from the pole position they had taken in qualifying as a penalty for their part in the crash in the previous day’s race which had also eliminated the #36 Porsche.

No rain was falling when the race got under way, although the track was so wet that full wet tyres were the only option. The #11 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Bruce Lorgere-Roux led away from pole. They were briefly headed by Bradley Ellis in the #21 Ford GT, but quickly regained the lead. The Ferrari then pulled out a lead which stretched to almost five seconds. Behind them, Ellis had let team-mate Mutsch through into second; creating the opportunity for the German to reduce the gap to nothing over the next three laps. On lap seven the Ford was right in the wheel-tracks of the Ferrari through the Ascari chicane and he took the lead on the run to Parabolica, with Ellis following through and past the Ferrari at the exit of Parabolica. On the next lap, the #43 La Torre Motorsport Dodge Viper Competition Coupe of Dino Lunardi made it up into third.

The pit-stop window opened after 23 minutes of the hour-long race, but most cars stayed out longer. The #21 Ford was the first of the leaders to pit, with Ellis handing over to Mortimer just after the halfway point of the race. With the track drying, a switch to slicks might have been considered; but just then, rain started to fall on parts of the circuit.
On lap 17, six of the top ten cars pitted; but, crucially, the #20 and #19 Fords and the #43 Dodge stayed out for an extra lap. This meant that by the time they had made their mandatory driver-change stops, the pit-lane window had closed by the time they left the pit-lane. The penalty for this is a stop-go pit-stop, with the stop being the length by which the window was missed; for the Viper this meant 47 seconds and the #20 Ford 33 seconds.

Ignoring the penalties, the #20 Ford now led the race, with the #43 Dodge in second and the #21 Ford third. Gilles Vannelet closed the gap on Ian Khan in the Ford and went ahead at the start of lap 24. Alex Mortimer was a patient observer of this move in third place, secure in the knowledge that he had no need to attempt a pass.

From there the top three stayed the same to the finish, less than five seconds apart. Since the penalties had been notified in the last five laps of the race, the teams did not need to stop. Instead, the stewards added the penalties, plus 30 seconds, to their overall race time. That dropped the #43 Dodge to fifth and the #20 Ford to third, promoting the #21 Ford GT into first place and the #1 Corvette to second.

The revised results overshadowed what had been a fine race; with battles taking place throughout the field. Compared to the previous race there were very few incidents and no major accidents. The #10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Jean-Claude Lagniez and Frederic Makowiecki was fourth - a good result from eleventh on the grid; but the #5 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Jose Manuel Balbiani and Alessandro Tonoli did even better, going from 28th to 6th. The #6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of Ashburn and Williams was seventh, just ahead of the #44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Jerome Thiry and Nigel Greenhalgh.

The result means Khan and Mutsch continue to lead the championship, although their lead is down to only two points, ahead of Ruffier and Peyroles. Bradley Ellis is third, two points further back, with Alex Mortimer in fourth. The next races in the series are at Oschersleben on 5th and 6th July. The last time the FIA GT3 European Championship visited the circuit in 2006, the first race saw a Dodge Viper 1-2 finish while the top two spots in the second race went to Aston Martin.

Bradley Ellis: “My race was hard – I got into the lead on the first lap, but the Ferrari got past me again. Then I had my Matech team-mate, Thomas Mutsch behind me – I let him past, because he was obviously quicker on some parts of the track. So I followed him and we made it up to first and second. I was following him and doing the same sort of pace, although I made a couple of mistakes. I held off the Dodge Viper behind me, then pitted and handed over to Alex. It wasn’t easy – conditions were greasy and I was pushing very hard. I’d prefer it to be either fully wet or fully dry.”
 
Alex Mortimer: “My stint was fairly easy – the car was fantastic. We had a small braking problem, but nothing major. After the pit-stop the Dodge and Ford were in front of me; I could close the gap, but we were in traffic, and I ran out of laps to get past them. It’s a very good all-round car – the braking is fantastic, it has a lovely engine and the chassis is very good. In the wet, it’s very well suited to this circuit – it was excellent. I’d like to say thank you to the team, and my family for travelling out here – and my girlfriend, because it’s her birthday!”
 
James Ruffier: “It’s been a good weekend for us. We’ve been a bit lucky, because we had a small problem during the driver change, trying to restart the engine. The car was really good, although we’ve got a small problem with the brakes that we’re trying to find a solution for. Compared to the Ford GT, we still have a lot of work to do, but the car is generally very good. The Corvette is consistent but we would like more performance over one lap.”
 
Arnaud Peyroles: “This weekend, it was difficult staying on the track – I discovered that yesterday, when I spun on the green flag lap! I needed to do good times, and keep it on the track, but it’s not a great car when the track is wet.”
 
Ian Khan: “I messed up yesterday – that was all my fault, and today we made a team error. Under the circumstances, we’re very pleased with finishing third – especially because it means we still lead the championship. It cost us one place, and it could have been worse, so I’m pretty happy.”
 
Thomas Mutsch (speaking before the result was amended): “It was a great race – very busy, with a lot to do. We have to dedicate this win to our mechanics – they worked all night to repair the car after yesterday’s crash, and we had to get some parts in from Germany to repair the roll-cage. They got the car fixed just in time, so this result is down to them.”
 
Frédéric Makowiecki: “Monza is not usually a good track for the Aston Martin, because its top speed is slow compared to our rivals. I’m really happy for Hexis Racing because the team did a good job. The race was difficult at the beginning on wet tyres, but I was able to be sixth when I handed over to Jean-Claude. We had a big fight with the Morgan, Porsche and Corvette, and we were all sliding around – it was good fun!”
 
Jean-Claude Lagniez: “I’m very happy for Fred – I think he’s one of the best drivers in the Championship. The track is very difficult, but my ‘day’ job is as a stunt driver, so it was good for me! When it rained, it made it very difficult, because the wet tyres were very worn.”
 
Jose Manuel Balbiani: “My race was hard, but I think it was tougher for my team-mate! The car was pretty hard to drive, but I was able to catch the cars in front. It’s a good result – we started well down the grid, finished fourth and picked up some points.”
 
David Ashburn: “My race was terrifying – racing on wet tyres, on a dry track, is not fun.  Obviously the left-hand corners are most important on this track, so I was doing all I could to keep the tyres on the left of the car as cool as possible – at one stage, I think I had two wheels on the grass!”

Richard Williams: “That was really hard work – the conditions were incredibly difficult to predict. We started on a brand new set of slicks, which seemed to melt on the first quick lap – with hindsight, we’d probably have been better on a scrubbed set. After that, it was a real struggle, it was just a case of keeping it on the track.”
 
Luca Pirri – No.19 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 14th: “We started well down the grid, which wasn’t ideal. Jürgen drove a very good stint and handed over to me in sixth position – but at the end of his stint, he didn’t see the pit board calling him in, which is why we missed the pit-stop window. So then I had to do a stop-go penalty. It’s too bad, because we could have scored our first points of the season today.“
 
Hans Knauss – No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, 17th: “It was a difficult race, because of the changing conditions – but it was fun being on slicks when it was raining! I’m very happy with this result. The conditions were really difficult – at the Lesmo corners it was raining, but at the other end of the circuit it was dry – you had to adjust your braking points on each lap.”
 
Dominik Kraihamer – No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, 17th: “It wasn’t easy to drive, because I had wet tyres on a dry track. When the tyres overheated I had understeer and oversteer, so I was trying to find the wet patches to keep the tyres cool. It was a good race – I enjoyed it.”
 
Jacques Laffite – No.30 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3, 26th: “My race was terrible – the dashboard wasn’t working. So we had no information, we had to guess when to change gear, the car didn’t have much grip. Yesterday was okay, but we were sliding too much today – the good thing is that we finished.”