FIA GT3, Jarama – Race One Report
The Audis Bounce Back

Kenneth Heyer snatched an unexpected win just a couple corners from the end of a hugely entertaining race early on Sunday morning in Spain, when he found his Team Rosberg Audi in the right place as others faltered, having started from 17th on the grid. Albert von Thurn und Taxis dominated the first half of the race in the #25 Argo Racing Lamborghini, but his teammate Giorgio Sanna endured a fraught final 15 minutes and dropped to seventh following several incidents.

Just 26 cars started the race after the Marc VDS Mustang found itself in homologation trouble yet again after qualifying and opted not to race. Von TuT sat at the head of the field after taking his first ever FIA pole the previous afternoon and the Bavarian kept his cool as the race director decided that a second pace lap was required. When the lights finally turned green, however, it was not the yellow and black Gallardo that turned through the Turn 1 horseshoe in the lead.

Instead, it was the green BMW Alpina B6 of Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof that got the better of both the LP560 and the #101 Callaway Corvette of Daniel Keilwitz on the drag down the pit straight and assumed the lead. Keilwitz then lost third to the #6 Phoenix Racing Audi of Stephane Lemeret, but reclaimed the spot two laps later after a love tap at the first corner.

Lemeret’s race was destined to last just one lap later after being nurfed from behind at the same corner by the #61 Prospeed Porsche of Paul van Splunteren; the Audi pulling off a few metres further round with right rear damage, and the Porsche retiring in the pits after 15 laps with front left damage, having dropped down the field following the shunt.

By this point, von Thurn und Taxis had recovered the lead from the B6 and led by three seconds, while Mayr-Melnhof was back in the clutches of the recovering Keilwitz. The Austrian kept ahead of the German for four laps, but then ran wide at the top of the hill under pressure and ended up well and truly beached in the gravel at the bottom.

Further back, several cars were making impressive progress and getting ever nearer to the front runners.

Matt Bell was enjoying the #23 United Autosport Audi’s new found pace, following its favourable BoP adjustment, and was up to an encouraging eighth place by lap five after having started from 11th. A couple of small mistakes cost him a couple of places soon afterwards, but, given his level of experience at this level, he continued to drive well and kept the car in the top ten.

Two other cars were doing even better, however. Bernd Herndlhofer was fair romping through the field in the #3 Audi, having made up eight places in as many laps since the start, but ahead was Giacomo Petrobelli in the #87 Chad Racing Ferrari Scuderia; up into the top five by the same point, having started 12th. Despite his progress, however, the Italian was facing severe pressure from Sean Paul Breslin in the #33 Black Falcon R8; yet another Audi that was seeing a significant upturn in fortunes at this meeting.

The Argo Lambo was untouchable, however, and Prince Albert was driving the race of his life – absolutely flawless and adding to his advantage with every lap completed. He even managed to clock the race’s fastest lap – 1:34.681 – in the process.

Joe Osborne was another to deliver a mighty performance in the first half of the race. Having started from seventh in the #11 Muehlner Porsche, the reigning GT4 Champion managed to put a place on the #16 Graff Racing Corvette of Joakim Lambotte on lap six and found himself in third place after the BMW’s encounter with the kitty litter.

Petrobelli also found a way past Lambotte, but shortly afterwards the Corvette slowed on track and struggled back to the pits with a puncture, where it was subsequently retired.

The pit-window opened after 25 minutes and the first to take advantage was Keilwitz, who handed the #101 Vette over to Christian Hohenadel. The white cars was joined in the pitlane by several other cars – including Breslin from fifth – and it started to become a very busy place. The leader showed no inclination to stop however – he was enjoying himself too much.

Osborne stopped on lap 18, while Petrobelli stayed out one more lap. Von Thurn und Taxis, however, left it until the last possible moment to stop and pitted on lap 20 having amassed a lead in excess of that many seconds. He was beaming from ear to ear when he got out of the car, but admitted that he may have had the best of the tyres during his stint.

Sanna rejoined still well in the lead, but he was not expected to be able to match Hohenadel’s pace and this was in evidence soon afterwards. After 21 laps, and with all stops complete, the order was 25, 101, 87, 3, 33, 11, 23, 60, 14, 88, 4, 100, 22, 77, 17, 1, 18, 12, 9, 5 and 32.

Diego Alessi had rejoined in fifth, but had made spectacular progress at the expense of Christer Jons in the #33 Audi when four cars arrived at the first corner at the same time. Alessi dived down the inside of the Audi and hung on to his new place with a huge slide out of the turn. Next up was the #3 and the Ferrari was ahead within another lap.

Hohenadel’s pace was now four seconds a lap quicker than Sanna’s and a 13s advantage for the Argo driver at the end of lap 21 was just a second by lap 25. Fortunately for Sanna, however, the BMW of Martin Matzke and the Phoenix Audi of Bruce Lorgere-Roux – both lapping at the leader’s pace but a lap down and fighting for position – were between the first two and Hohenadel had to bide his time before working his way through. But when he did eventually latch on to the Lambo’s tail, he found that it wasn’t going to be easy to get the lead.

Sanna made the Gallardo as wide as he could for four full laps and was driving well. However, on lap 31, he ran wide at T4 and the Corvette driver saw his chance. He dived to the inside but clouted the kerbs hard and was unable to prevent himself tapping the leader into a spin. Sanna recovered, but was now in range of the third-placed Alessi. A watching Prince Albert, meanwhile, threw his water bottle in disgust at the contact and stormed off to the motor home.

But things were about to go from bad to worse for Sanna. At the same point on the next lap he again ran wide and this tempted Alessi to go for the inside; and again this resulted in the luckless Lambo driver being tapped into a spin.

Alessi also lost ground in the incident as both Kenneth Heyer and Jons took advantage.

However, Alessi managed to get past the Black Falcon R8 at T5 and reclaimed third; the Phoenix car, however, was several seconds up the road by this point.

As Hohenadel began the final lap of the race, his lead was some seven seconds over Heyer, whose own advantage over Alessi was of similar magnitude. However, although the Corvette had clearly backed off for several laps already, Heyer suddenly seemed to be closing suspiciously quickly; and it wasn’t long before he was right with him – the leader was in big trouble.

Just two corners from the end of the race, Heyer swept past Hohenadel and took the lead, going on to record a surprise – but well deserved – victory; the first for an Audi in 2010. The Corvette meanwhile was jerking from side to side as it tried to keep up its momentum. A puncture or suspension issue was suspected, but later the problem was traced to the fuel pump. Hohenadel managed to hang on to second, however, just ahead of Alessi, who was under pressure from Jons right up to the flag.

Kenneth Heyer; "The fight with the Ferrari was the most successful part of the race and we had a lot of fun, it was absolutely fair, we were very close, and I think the Audi behind us was a bit faster.  I was pushing hard but I was afraid of making a mistake and losing a place.  My radio wasn't working so I wasn't sure if we were 2-3-4 or what position we were.  If it hadn't been for the contact with the Lamborghini it would've been a big fight between us because the cars are very close. I never imagined the win; I thought we would be third, which was great coming from 15th on the grid, so the win is great.  We've had a lot of bad luck this year until now, so this is good for all of us.  The performance of the Audi has been much better this weekend but it isn't easy for FIA with so many manufacturers to balance the cars but I think it is good here as there are ten cars within one second, which is good.  We're starting from 20th in the second race, so I think we will be in P5 at the end!"

Christian Hohenadel; "The situation with the Lamborghini is difficult to explain but he was 2-3 seconds a lap slower than me.  He defended really hard, holding his line and sometimes he was much to slow, I turn in and he comes from the outside and what happened, happened. We've had a problem for the whole weekend with the catch tank which is broken and I think the problem has come back.  I hope we can fix the car for the next race.  It started three laps from the flag and it got harder and harder and I was very lucky to see the chequered flag.  We got a lot of points today compared to the others in the championship and we are very satisfied with that."

Diego Alessi; "I must say thank you to Giacomo who did a great job in the first part of the race, I just had to make sure that I didn't make a mistake.  I was having a good fight with the Audi but at one point we met a Lamborghini running very slowly in the middle of the track and we touched.  That is why I lost the position, if this hadn't of happened we could have had a good fight until the end of the race.  We are very surprised to be here on the podium but we are very happy as well."

Markus Paltalla and Christoffer Nygaard rounded out the top six after the Finnish Porsche driver held off the Dane’s determined challenge in the Ford GT.

The teams now had less than six hours to ready the cars for the second race of the day.

MH