FIA GT Championship – Brno – Race Report
Very Tight At The Top The first FIA GT titles were decided at Brno - with AF Corse Motorola securing the 2007 GT2 Teams Championship, while Maserati and Ferrari took the manufacturer titles in each of the two classes. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari won in GT2 again, while a Maserati took maximum points in GT1 – but for the first time it was the #2 Vitaphone car, of Christian Montanari and Miguel Ramos. With the Biagi / Bartels MC12 having an early adventure (with Mike Hezemans) the points are even closer in GT1. They may yet change again before Nogaro next week, if Kumpen and Longin get their Oschersleben points back – and Biagi and Piccini / Bertolini will then be two points worse off, making it even more tightly bunched. GT1 Driver Points After Brno
1 Thomas Biagi 47
Andrea Bertolini 47
Andrea Piccini 47
2 Christian Montanari 44
Miguel Ramos 44
3 Ryan Sharp 43
Karl Wendlinger 43
4 Mike Hezemans 40
Jean-Denis Deletraz 40
5 Anthony Kumpen 34.5
Bert Longin 34.5
6 Michael Bartels 31
7 Jamie Davies 25
Fabio Babini 25 After a very promising, yet fairly static, opening phase of the GT1 race, this one fizzled out somewhat – partly as a result of an incident between Michel Bartels and Mike Hezemans, and partly as a result of the odd pit stop arrangements (two are mandatory), which meant that there was very little pattern to the race at all, at least until the closing stages, when everyone had made their second stops. But at least the opening period contained some good, hard, close racing – particularly right at the start, when Hezemans in the #5 Corvette looked as though he might get the better of both Vitaphone Maseratis, while Karl Wendlinger did just that. The Austrian in the blue and white DBR9 simply drove round the outside at the long first corner, and emerged in front. Despite considerable ballast (40 kg), the Aston Martin began to ease away – from Bartels, Hezemans, Montanari, Kox (#28 Lamborghini), the two Playteam MC12s, Anthony Kumpen and Stefan Mucke (the other Lamborghini). Peter Kox was the man on the move, passing Montanari and looking as though he might pass his fellow Dutchman in #5. Wendlinger teased the gap out to almost three seconds over Bartels, but by lap 10, that gap was contracting, and the top 12 were covered by less than 12 seconds. A few minutes later and the first five were all running together – but strategies were already coming into play. Pier Guidi pitted before the half hour, from seventh, Giannocaro continuing (on the same tyres) in #12 Playteam Maserati. So that was one car out of it and running its own race plan – and soon there would be three more. Hezemans was virtually alongside Bartels into the first corner, with perhaps just enough room for both to navigate the long right-hander – but slight contact was made, both spun, Bartels was beached in the gravel, Hezemans had a puncture, and Kox was off in avoidance. That meant that three of the championship front-running drivers would fail to score well, and that Peter Kox and Jos Menten went from potential winners (even probable winners) to ‘mere’ podium contenders. These three actually ended up seventh (#1), eighth (#28) and ninth (#5) – Kox losing his left/front wheel a few laps from the end, while running in a strong third. He and Jos Menten deserved far more than eighth. As it turned out, had #28 finished third, Andrea Bertolini and Andrea Piccini would have been more than happy with fourth – because that would mean getting rid of some of their ballast in the run-in to the season. How odd that drivers seek to finish fourth, the first ‘lose ballast’ position. As it turned out, Bertolini gave up third anyway, on the last lap, to Anthony Kumpen, and ran across the line just ahead of the sister #12. Somehow we’ve already covered most of the early front-runners – which really leaves the race between the Jetalliance #33 DBR9 and the #2 Vitaphone MC12 to be explained. They had different strategies (of course they did), Wendlinger pitting after about 40 minutes (18 laps – tyres and Ryan Sharp), which left Montanari in the lead, from Bertolini. When the latter pitted (lap 22 – tyres changed, Piccini taking over), Montanari had a big lead – almost half a minute, over Kumpen and Jamie Davies in the #23 BMS Aston Martin. 45 minutes and the car that ran tenth at the start was up to (an artificial) third. How are spectators supposed to follow this? Kumpen pitted after 25 laps (tyres, Bert Longin), and with the BMS Astons both pitting, Montanari had a 56 second lead over Ryan Sharp. On Ramos’s out lap (on replacement rubber) and he was two seconds behind Sharp, with almost half the race having elapsed. This was the key stage of the race for these two – and Miguel Ramos was making a much better job of it than Ryan Sharp. Ramos eased past on lap 31, and by lap 36, led by a significant ten seconds. The race had just been won – and lost. “I was lucky when I passed Ryan Sharp, because it was quite risky, but I had to do it, because I had new tyres and he’d already been on the track for a while,” explained Miguel Ramos. “So I took the risk, but gained advantage.” Further down the order, Jean-Denis Deletraz and Thomas Biagi were having a good old scrap (again, for these two cars), without contact this time, Deletraz initially gaining the upper hand, Biagi then getting ahead. More significantly, Jos Menten had passed Andrea Piccini, for third, and pulled away – Menten and Kox had at least a podium car on this day – while Bouchut was pulling away from Longin, these two fifth and sixth. But you could never be sure when anyone was about to pit. Ryan Sharp didn’t take long to do so, the #33 car pitting on lap 37 (45 minutes left), just 19 laps for the Scot. Wendlinger took tyres again. 35 minutes left and Ramos still led – by over 30 seconds from the yet-to-stop-for-a-second-time Piccini, Bouchut and Longin cars. Wendlinger was fifth, and he certainly had the upper hand over anyone who had stopped twice. Miguel Ramos, after his best ever FIA GT drive, pitted with 27 minutes left (46 laps), having been holding the gap back to Wendlinger at a steady 65 seconds. Montanari resumed (on the same rubber) just ahead of the yet to stop Bouchut, and a safe 17 seconds ahead of Wendlinger. And that was that. Montanari breezed home to a first win for both he and his gentleman partner. They’d got everything right. The Maserati certainly seems to cope best of all with the current three-set tyre rule. “Unfortunately the tyres degraded rather quickly, that’s why I had to pit earlier than we had planned,” explained Karl Wendlinger. “Today’s determining factor was that the winning team didn’t change tyres for their second stint.” “The car was very constant, with the Michelin tyres,” said Montanari. “When we changed driver at the pit stop, the mechanics were very fast. Miguel did a fantastic stint, and then we just pushed really hard, and this is the result! For me this is fantastic.” Kumpen and Longin were very happy with third, on a weekend when they felt that they hadn’t found the ideal set-up. Perhaps the significant factor at Nogaro next week will be that #33 and #2 (of the championship contenders – plus #4 if a ruling goes their way) will carry more weight, while #11 will carry less. “At the end, we finished as high as we wanted which is fantastic since the result reopens the championship,” pointed out Andrea Piccini. "This result has given us the courage to really battle on through," said a happy Bert Longin. "And who knows we might have another boost this week.” “What is interesting," added Anthony Kumpen, "is that the procedure used to measure the fuel tank capacity has been altered after the 24 Hours of Francorchamps … say no more. This rather proves that the previous procedure was no good; otherwise they wouldn’t have adapted it. We are waiting with full confidence for the outcome. We are fully entitled to that victory and those 10 points connected with it. Should we be in our right we will be a half point from the intermediate leader board of the championship. The battle for the title is not over yet, it can still have a great ending. ” GT2 was just as disjointed an affair as GT1. The AF Corse Ferraris had the speed advantage over everyone else, but Tim Mullen had just managed to split them in qualifying. “I got a good clean start and held my position between the two AF Corse Ferraris,” explains the Irishman. “Unfortunately, a few laps in, Bruni lunged up my inside at the last corner and spun me around onto the grass. I rejoined way down the field and handed over to Darren (Turner) who did a great job. I got new rubber for the final stint and was the fastest car on the track. I was catching Rui Aguas at a rate of one second per lap and managed to pass him up the inside of turn one with three laps to go. He squeezed me as I went through and we touched but it was a good pass. I ended up just three seconds behind third place so the end of the race was a good battle for us. I was disappointed and surprised that Rui then felt the need to drive into me on the slowing down lap!” With the Ruberti / Mediani Edil Cris Ferrari excluded for a ride height infringement, Mullen and Turner took the final podium spot. “Tim’s pace was good but unfortunately we strayed away from our strategy and didn’t change tyres during the first stop,” adds Darren Turner. “I went out behind Collard and really enjoyed my scrap with him. All in all a disappointing result from what could have been a very good weekend.” “My car was so unbelievably great in my two stints,” said race winner (with Toni Vilander) Dirk Muller. “My tyres were as if they were glued to the track, and it was very easy to control it.” Vilander did have a trip into the gravel, but that was balanced out by the Bruni / Ortelli #51 losing time with a door that didn’t want to close at a pit stop. The Porsches – as exemplified by Turner’s race, on used rubber, with Emmanuel Collard – had a miserable event, and although Collard and Malucelli finished fifth, behind the controversial Aguas, and the BMS pair could still win the title, it looks a remote possibility. GT2 Driver Points
1 Toni Vilander 63
Dirk Müller 63
2 Stephane Ortelli 52
Gianmaria Bruni 52
3 Matteo Malucelli 51
Emmanuel Collard 51
4 Marcello Zani 32.5
5 Paolo Ruberti 29.5
Damien Pasini 29.5
6 Tim Mullen 29
7 Matteo Cressoni 27.5
8 Marc Lieb 26
9 Emanuele Busnelli 24.5
Sean Edwards 24.5
Leo Machitski 24.5 The Ebimotors 997 followed the BMS version home, and seventh and eighth were the other Edil Cris and Scuderia Ecosse entries. Tech 9 employed Leo Machitski to start and finish the race, but retired its 997 after two trips into the gravel. Ben Aucott and Alain Ferte won the Citation Cup Class again, in the #16 Maserati, with Tom Cloet and Mauro Casadei well down in third, behind the #15 Gosse / Kutemann Maserati. | 
