FIA GT3, Paul Ricard – Race One Report
No Stopping The Corvettes

The first of the two GT3 races at the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track began in glorious sunshine and with very high temperatures at track level (53 degrees C) and in the air (34), and clearly cool heads would be required for the 60 minutes to come.

Despite having to carry an additional 100kg (not including success ballast), the Corvette Z06.R was clearly still a competitive proposition and two examples sat at the sharp end of the grid – Daniel Keilwitz on pole in the #101 Callaway Competition car and Joakim Lambotte second in the #16 Graff Racing version. To rub salt into the wound, the third placed Schubert BMW Z4 of Csaba Walter was more than a second adrift of the front row.

Race numbers had already been reduced by two following the withdrawal of the Marc VDS Mustang from the championship (the team planning to return with a cast-iron homologation in 2011) and the withdrawal from the Paul Ricard meeting of the #1 Hexis Aston following engine problems; and it was reduced by one more when the #88 Chad Racing Ferrari of Damien Charveriat ground to a halt on the formation lap and was pushed behind the tyre walls.

The remaining 25 cars followed the pace car round to the long pit straight and when the lights changed, it was Keilwitz who made it to the first left hander ahead of Lambotte.

There was a change for third, with 2007 champion Gilles Vannelet getting ahead of Walter in the #11 Muehlner Porsche.

Further round the opening lap, however, an over-optimistic move by Petri Lappalainen on Jurgen Haering was to have significant consequences; the #60 Prospeed Porsche tapping the #12 Muehlner car into a spin (and then itself being clipped by the spinning car as it tried to go by, causing race-ending damage), which was followed by an unsighted Kenneth Heyer crashing the #3 Team Rosberg Audi into the stationary #12 at some speed to cause significant damage to both cars, but fortunately no injuries.    

With so much carbon fibre strewn across T10, the safety car had to be scrambled and the clean-up operation took four long laps. And during this caution period, a bad day for Chad Racing ended when the #87 Scuderia of Giacomo Petrobelli suddenly slowed and stopped out on track.

When the race went green again, the field was strung out and Keilwitz started to pull out an advantage; and while several distinct ‘strings’ of cars began to form, very few direct overtaking moves were taking place.

Sean Paul Breslin was swapping places in the #33 Black Falcon Audi with the Ford GT of  Mikko Eskelinen, while Matt Bell was having to defend his encouraging seventh position from Henri-Gérard Tonelli; the #17 Graff Corvette eventually taking the place from the #23 United Autosports R8.

Soon afterwards the pit window opened and it wasn’t long before the majority of the field headed in to change drivers, with the race leaders being amongst the earliest to stop.

Things resumed in pretty much the same way as they’d left off – although, obviously, now with different drivers occupying the spaces behind the wheel. Bernhard van Oranje led in the #101 Callaway Corvette from Matt Bell’s Audi until they completed the driver-change merry-go-round, and after this Christian Hohenadel led in the #100 ‘Vette from Mike Parisy in the #16. Several seconds further back a four-car train was led by Antoine Leclerc in the #11 Porsche, from Marco Holzer’s #61 GT3 R and the two Z4s – Claudia Huertgen’s #77 ahead of the #76 of Edward Sandström.

And it was this quartet that provided most of the entertainment in an otherwise straight-forward second half. Sandström managed to find a way past the German veteran to take fifth, while Leclerc and Holzer enjoyed a door-to-door drag race down to T1 at the start of lap 19 – the Frenchman, driving very assertively, managing to keep the Porsche Junior behind him.

Two laps later Holzer tried again and so, so nearly made the move stick. Unfortunately for him, the attempt cost him some momentum and the BMWs pounced; first Sandström and then Huertgen going past and suddenly Holzer was sixth. Eight minutes of the race remained.

Further back, several small fights were underway. Most notably a three-way fight for ninth between the #25 Argo Lamborghini – started from the pitlane by Siso Cunill and now being driven by Belgian Niels Lagrange – the #100 Corvette of Marius Ritskes and the #33 Audi of Christer Jöns; the Corvette being the loser here as both the other cars found a way past. The other Lamborghini expired at the change-over with a smokey engine, denying Prince Albert Thundertaxi a drive.

Now it was Huertgen’s time to gain and lose – first passing her teammate for fourth, but then getting forced wide which allowed both the #77 and #61 to pass once more. Holzer almost reclaimed fourth in the same incident, but Sandström closed the door just in time. And then Huertgen recovered enough to find the inside round T10 and we were back to where we were.

Things were much less dramatic further up the track, with Hohenadel comfortably leading from Parisy; and the final two laps were reeled off without incident to allow the #101 to claim yet another top score. Parisy finished six seconds back, while the impressive Leclerc hung on to take third from the two Beemers.

Daniel Keilwitz; “The race was very good for me. I had a good start at the beginning, then the safety came out for four laps and after the restart, the safety car made it easier for me. I could drive at the front and the time was ticking by. After the restart, I kept control of the first position, made an early pitstop, and Christian did a great job and was very fast at the end. I’m really happy that we’ve won a second race this year. The tyres were okay, because of the safety car, I didn’t push too hard on the tyres. Otherwise they were really good.”

Christian Hohenadel; “The temperature in the car isnt’ as cool as I’d wish. The race was okay for me; I got my stint in a leading position. I tried my best to stay in the front. Finally we made it. Very happy with this result, but although we have a good lead, there are 5 races left, and a lot can happen in 5 races. We have to stay very concentrated, and we might make it. We’ll see after this event.”

Joakim Lambotte; “For sure, we’d prefer to be in the first position, but we’ve made a great job with qualifying. They made a small gap at the restart and I couldn’t come back on them: I pushed very hard, but the car was quite hard to drive. So, I’m very happy to be on the podium. We made an early pitstop as well. It was a bit boring, having four laps behind the safety car, but I enjoyed the race a lot, even if the temperature in the car is horrible, it’s way too hot. I enjoyed this race.”

Mike Parisy; “I tried to push very hard at the beginning of the race. It was very difficult because I had a lot of over-steer. I tried to keep contact with the leader, but I was having difficulties, so I just tried to keep hold of second place and the points for the championship. It’s not a very good position for us; we’re second, they’re leaders of the championship, but the championship is long, so we’ve got to keep contact and the fighting. The tyres were wearing out near the end so I didn’t take the kerbs during the end of the race, so my rhythm slowed a bit.”

Gilles Vannelet; “I’m very happy to be here, because Hexis have a party tonight. Since the beginning of the season, we haven’t been able to find a good setup with this car. In Silverstone we had a lot of understeer; in Brno first race with understeer in the rain, and it was catastrophic. After Brno, we worked with Michelin and the team was convinced that the car was understeering, but we lost a lot of time. Antoine helped us this weekend, because he’s a young, fast, experienced driver. He helped us this weekend to be on the podium. ”

Antoine Leclerc; “First, I want to thank Gilles and the team, Mühlner Motorsport, who did a fantastic job. Gilles did a good job.  Afterwards, he gave me a very good car. The start of my stint was good, but the car was very difficult at the end. There was a lot of understeering. Behind me there was Marco Holzer, who was very close and putting a lot of pressure on me. I was pushing very, very hard too.”

The question now was, could anyone stop the Corvettes in race two?

MH