FIA GT3, Silverstone – Race 1 Report
An Enthralling GT3 Race

A gripping 60 minutes saw four different leaders at a grey, slightly damp Silverstone this afternoon, for the first European GT3 race of the season.

Polesitter Mikael Forsten got a poor start in the #36 Prospeed Porsche 997 Cup S: “I was struggling to get heat into my tyres in the opening laps.”

That allowed Phil Quaife to take a dominant early lead in the #33 Apex Motorsport Jaguar.

The early stages saw the Englishman extending that lead, leaving dsc thumbing through the record books to find the last time a Jaguar won an international race (1989 we think).

Up to second was the #8 Hexis Aston Martin of Thomas Accary with the ProSpeed Porsche losing a further place to the #5 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 of Nicki Cadei.before the first lap was done.

Through Copse on that opening lap, a spinning #44 Ascari in the middle of the pack caused minor mayhem and a second gyrating KZ1R (Jonny Lang in the #45 car) further interrupted the progress of the midfield runners and the combination of both incidents (plus a couple of opening lap reliability problems) meant that by the start of lap 2 we’d already lost five cars and had others running with damage.

As the order shook down and the delayed runners got back up to speed, the early top ten looked like this: Quaife’s Jaguar led from the #8 Aston, #5 Ferrari, #36 Porsche, #46 Lamborghini, #29 Morgan, #12 Ferrari, #17 Aston Martin, #6 Porsche and #43 Dodge.

Of that little lot the Morgan was a huge winner from the opening lap melee, up from 20th place on the grid to 6th with Tech 9’s Maurizio Fabris also shooting up the order, into fifth from a 15th place start and Trackspeed’s David Ashburn making similarly impressive early progress, up from a 22nd place start to lie 9th in the early running.

Amongst those losing out in the same melee was Ian Khan, his #20 Ford GT losing a number of places after being baulked by the spinning Ascaris.

The third placed Ferrari meanwhile was on the move, closing fast on the #8 Aston Martin whilst behind that tussle there was a battle royal underway between the unlikely pair of the #46 Tech 9 Lamborghini and the #29 Morgan, and Gael Lesoudier, the Morgan man, looked likely to be able to make a move count, the Aero 8 transformed into a truly competitive proposition this year.

Ten minutes gone and the Ferrari was up to second place, 2.2 seconds behind the Jaguar with the already delayed #36 Porsche almost coming a cropper behind with a very wide, grassy moment – but no harm done.

The already depleted Corvette ranks fell further with the retirement in the pits of the #28 Marc Sourd car, followed soon afterwards by a smoky trip down the pitlane into the dnf list from Marguerite Laffite’s #31 Morgan.

They were almost joined by a flurry of cars which seemed to encounter fluid on the circuit, perhaps from the Morgan or from the #15 Gallardo which expired at around the same time, the 3rd and 4th placed cars both spinning and the #26 Ascari also suffering a trip across the infield, but all continued relatively unscathed.

15 minutes gone and the lead changed for the first time, Cadei finding his way by the Jaguar with Quaife seeming to be working his way around a problem, the XKR’s speed undiminished on the straights but clearly struggling elsewhere, his fight for the lead wasn’t done yet though, Quaife fought back but was soon fending off a recovering Forsten in the ProSpeed 997.

The Jag’s problems were still readily apparent and the Porsche soon made his way past the struggling big cat.

There were battles going on up and down the top ten by this point, the Morgan up to fifth, a full blown tussle going on from positions 6 to 9, including the #43 Viper making his way by the #17 Aston for 6th position, and the #20 and #21 Ford GTs , Ian Khan and Ed Morris, chasing the group ahead in their Matech Ford GTs.

Whatever Quaife’s issue had been it seemed to have eased, his Jaguar was back up to pace and starting to close on the leader, the gap 1-3 was 5.5 seconds just after the 20 minute mark.

The #29 Morgan by now had lost some momentum and had fallen into the clutches of the chasing group – first Gilles Vannelet passed the Aero 8 for 5th and then Lesoudier found himself three wide into Priory alongside Fabris and Giraudi, the pair battling for seventh with Khan by now up to 9th after passing Nicolas Misslin’s #12 JMB Ferrari.

Pit stop window open and the cars came flowing down the pit lane in large numbers, Khan one of the early stoppers on 25 minutes to hand the #20 Ford over to Thomas Mutsch.

Halfway House and the leading cars stayed out for now and the top three battle was closing up again, the Ferrari heading the Porsche by just 1.2 seconds with the Jaguar just another 3 seconds back.

Ed Morris took the #21 Ford pitwards from 8th position, fabulous progress from a 25th place start on the grid whilst further up the order the previously high flying #8 Hexis Aston was now struggling, Accary dropping back down the order.

Quaife pitted at 32 minutes, Stuart Hall climbing aboard the #33 Jaguar and with Cadei pitting just 2 minutes later, Jose Manuel Balbiani taking over the helm, Forsten then inherited the lead, Jaguar, Ferrari and then Porsche – What next?

Well by now Thomas Mutsch was up to speed in the #20 Ford GT, he grabbed 9th from Tom Ferrier’s Tech 9 Lamborghini and as others ahead made their stops, the Swiss run Ford emerged in sixth place.

Forsten pitted as the pit stop window started to close and whilst the Porsche crew pulled him out of the cockpit and pushed David Loix aboard there were other dramas afoot.

First the #8 Aston Martin received a stop-go penalty, dropping the car out of the top ten, next the flying Ford GT passed the Morgan for fifth place, and, with the conditions beginning to get wetter again, Mutsch’s pace just didn’t seem to slacken, the Ford GT man into the 1:54s whilst others ahead were in the 1:58s and 1:59s.

The #29 Morgan was pressing hard but unable to resist the Ford, Mutsch up to third with 20 minutes to go, as the other remaining Morgan pitted to retire, a disgusted Jacques Laffite vacating the car after it was black flagged, dropping fluid.

Another fine battle underway at this point was a four way scrap between three Ascaris and the Bradley Ellis driven Ford GT, this group battling hard to get into the top ten, whilst ahead the men on the move were Mutsch (catching the second placed Ferrari fast), and the #29 Morgan, past the Jaguar and up into fourth.

Balbiani was now under pressure and within a couple of laps the Ford GT was up into second place, still ripping lumps out of the leader’s advantage, the length of the Abbey straight the gap with 12 minutes remaining.

The other man on the move by now was Zani in the #17 Aston, catching the Jaguar with Stuart Hall struggling a little in the wet conditions. Hall pointed out that with the Jaguar’s relatively narrow rubber, he lost out more than most when the track became slippery. Presumably Phil Quaife suffered similarly earlier on? He did have a quick spin on some of the fluid that went down.

The other Jaguar meanwhile had been crawling back up the order, Ben Clucas though found himself heading back in the opposite direction after a drive through penalty.

10 minutes to go and things were hotting up once again, the 1-2 gap down to under 8 seconds, the Morgan reeling in the #5 Ferrari (and passing for third a lap later) and Richard Williams in the #6 Trackspeed Porsche was by now making his mark, up to seventh and making inroads into the cars ahead. He and Ferrier in the #46 Lamborghini were having a very good race.

Williams made his way past Zani for 6th and then by Hall’s Jaguar for fifth within a lap and began to close in on the struggling Balbiani.

Mutsch meanwhile continued to close in fast on Loix. Five seconds were lopped out of the Porsche’s advantage in a single circuit.

Lap 27 and the Ford was right on the tail of the 997 and next time around an easy move up the inside into Stowe, the Ford led the race.

William’s fine run came to an end with another drive through penalty, the Trackspeed team had released the car from its mandatory pitstop the princely total of 0.2 seconds early, which cost the Porsche men an opportunity of a podium finish, tenth overall would have to do today.

Another car hitting trouble was the gallant #29 Morgan, crawling and then out of the race almost within touching distance of a podium finish themselves, but what an improvement from their 2007 form.

The #5 Ferrari then was back up to third but now under pressure from Zani’s #17 Brixia Aston Martin, the DBRS9 would make that move on the penultimate lap, the fading 430 unable to resist.

And that, after 60 minutes of great action, would be that, the Ford GT a worthy victor after fine runs from both Khan and Mutsch, the German the star of the race. The ProSpeed Porsche would be second, the new 997 Cup S regaining the traditional status of Porsche as a frontrunner with the Aston Martin completing the podium.

Ian Khan: “At the start I think I dropped about 15 places, someone spun in front of me and I had to come to a stop and everyone came past. Once I got going again the car was great and I picked them off one by one, I think I was up to tenth by the time I came in. By and large it was a smooth race apart from that first setback, but I don’t think really it cost us too much time and at least I didn’t get into any more trouble. The car was really good over the pits straight and into Copse so that’s where I got most of them but it wasn’t so good under the brakes. Thomas [Mutsch] did a fantastic job in slippery conditions and the win was really down to him.”

Thomas Mutsch: “It was an absolutely fair race without any contact, the team has done a fantastic job over the winter and the car is much quicker than last year. Ian [Khan] did a great job and the pitstop went very well, really it was a perfect Saturday for us. Seven or eight laps before the end it started raining more and getting more slippy. It was quite dangerous but the car was feeling good, especially looking at some of the other cars. When I got in after the pitstop I thought we could maybe get into the top five or maybe a podium but about halfway through my stint I was told I was about ten seconds off the front so I pushed and stayed pushing and three or four laps later I had the Porsche, just when it was really slippy. I had been watching him [Loix] and I realised he was in a bit of trouble but he drove well and it was very fair when I past him. The last three laps it dried out and the gap back to him was not getting any bigger.”

Mikael Forsten: “At the start I was suffering keeping the pace as I had no heat in the tyres but after that the car was fantastic and I could get the fastest lap. I hit some oil or something and went off but luckily I managed to get back on, but lost some places. It was my first pole in GT3 so I’m pleased.”

David Loix: “It was my first race in FIA GT3s and I feel very lucky to be in second on my first race. Mikael drove a great qualifying and race and even though the weather was bad it is a good result.”

Gianluca Giraudi: “There were some problems at the first corner and on the second lap so I lost some places. I was fighting with a lot of different cars, the last one I think was the Morgan and I had some problems overtaking him. You could see the difference between all of the different types of car, for example the Morgan would pull away out of turns but the Aston was faster into the turns and in medium to fast corners. At the end of my stint, the car was fine but it did take me some time to get a good feeling with it. In the end, I am happy with third place.”

Marcello Zani: “We started in the middle of the grid, so for a new team with so much to learn it is not a bad result.”

And not a bad race either – in fact, a very good one. Tom Ferrier, who only drove the #46 Lamborghini for the first time this morning, yet brought it home sixth, pointed out that the equalisation in British GTs is now very close, more so than in FIA GTs, where the Ford GT was a very effective weapon. Bradley Ellis and Ed Morris proved that too, and will almost certainly be in a Matech Ford again – but will the mid-engined Fords be ‘equalised’ before the next GT3 race meeting?
GG