FIA GT1, San Luis - Championship Race Report

Exim Bank Team China won its first Championship Race of the 2011 season at the Potrero de los Funes circuit in Argentina. In the last race for the Corvette C6.R and Selleslagh Racing Team its drivers Francesco Pastorelli and Yelmer Buurman took their second win of the weekend.

Right at the start things went terribly wrong for newly crowned champion Lucas Luhr. On the straight his #23 JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R was hit by the #37 All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Lamborghini Murcielago of Dominik Schwager, who was on his turn tapped by the #20 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R of Enrique Bernoldi. Luhr and Schwager veered off to the left and as they went straight for the concrete wall they collected the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 as well as the other All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Lamborghini, the #21 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R of David Brabham and the DKR www-discount.de Lamborghini of Jonathan Kennard.

With five heavily damaged cars stranded on the side of the track the safety car was deployed and remained on the circuit for almost 25 minutes. As the safety car pulled in again the #7 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin of Alex Müller was in the lead - but it was given a drive-through for overtaking behind the safety car.

One lap later the pit window opened and most cars - including the Young Driver AMR Aston - came in to make their mandatory pit stop. The #4 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DBR9 came in with damage to the front - the bonnet of the car completely gone.

On lap 12 Tomas Enge pitted to serve the drive through penalty, which resulted in the #22 JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R of Peter Dumbreck taking the lead and was now virtually in the lead of the Teams’ Championship. But moments later Dumbreck was given the message that he also had to come in for a drive-through penalty, as Richard Westbrook had also passed another car behind the safety car.

Behind Dumbreck Yelmer Buurman in the Exim Bank Team China Corvette C6.R and Christopher Haase in the DKR www-discount.de Lamborghini had meanwhile overtaken Stef Dusseldorp in the Hexis AMR Aston Martin, which resulted in Buurman inheriting the lead when Dumbreck came into the pit.

A strong drive from Yelmer Buurman meant he pulled away from the cars behind him in the following laps and almost cruised to his second victory of the weekend. Christopher Haase finished over 4 seconds behind in second place and Clivio Piccione secured third place in the #3 Hexis AMR Aston Martin.

With Exim Bank Team China and DKR not eligible to score points in the Teams Championship Hexis AMR scored points as if they had won the race and thanks to their second car finishing fifth overall they scored enough points to pass Young Driver AMR and JR Motorsports in the standings and clinch the FIA GT1 World Teams Championship.

Thanks to Dumbreck taking eighth place and Enge finishing in tenth Hexis AMR finished the season with 235 points. JR Motorsports finished second at 3 points and Young Driver AMR finished third at 4 points.

Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr have finished the 2011 season as World Championship, having scored a total of 137 points. Despite not being able to start in both Argentinian races Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner are vice-champions, with Hexis AMR’s Andrea Piccini and Christian Hohenadel, the 2010 FIA GT3 European Champion, finishing in third.