FIA GT Bucharest – Race Report
Faultless Run From The Andreas
© Janos Wimpffen It has been declared a wet race, although the rain that marred the latter part of the GT3 event has stopped. It’s back to the usual pattern of a little on and off pattern of drops. Here are the starting drivers: 12, Pier Guidi 11, Bertolini 2, Montanari 36, Lechner 4, Kumpen 33, Wendlinger 1, Gollin 8, Menten 7, Bouchut 5, Hezemans 23, Davies 22, Monfardini 97, Collard 99, Edwards 63, Janis 74, Zani 62, Mullen 16, Macari 18, Cloet 53, Cressoni 101, Kuppens 15, Kutemann 50, Vilander 52, Ruberti 21, Kessel 66, Lieb 69, Felbermayr, Sr. A good crowd is on hand—grandstands from 50 – 60 percent full. That’s excellent given the nasty rain. The race is being started with a lap of yellow behind the safety car to avoid any first lap issues due to the rain—it has started to come down at a somewhat brisker pace than before. The No. 5 Corvette completes one lap and calls at the pits to make the first of the two mandated stops and to hand over from Mike Hezemans to Jean-Denis Deletraz. This was a very thoughtful move, but events would make sure it backfired somewhat.
On the actual green the two Scuderia Playteam Maseratis pull away with Alessandro Pier Guidi’s No. 12 in front of Andrea Beroloni in No. 11. Christian Montanari (No. 2 Vitaphone MC12) falls well back in third, but after two laps has gained three seconds on the other Maseratis. The effect of the wet conditions is amply illustrated by Emmanuel Collard. He whips the GT2 class No. 97 BMS Porsche past the GT1 class Aston Martin of Jamie Davies (No. 23), the BMS DBR9s looking like a real handful. The first incident of the race comes a few laps later at the roundabout when Paolo Ruberti tags the wall twice and parks the No. 52 Edli Cris Ferrari F430. Meanwhile Sean Edwards (No. 99 Tech 9 Porsche) is closing on the GT2 class leader but he cuts the chicane. The first such incident merits a warning and hand slap for the team, while the second incurs a full-bore penalty.
Then comes the first truly significant incident as Jarek Janis goes far too wide at Turn 1, expecting to lap slower traffic. Instead he places the No. 63 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari onto the wettest surface possible and plows straight ahead into the tire barriers. The impact is so severe that the concrete barrier behind it is pushed back about 3 meters, causing turn workers and photographers to scramble. One appears to have been knocked down but recovers. It takes about 10 minutes to extract the Ferrari using the ubiquitous Felbermayr tow cranes. It is handled only with a local yellow, somewhat daunting considering that anyone else needing runoff space would likely encounter the tow vehicle. Bertolini then begins a steady challenge of his teammate but it is cut short by what would be the most significant incident of the race. Loris Kessel (No. 21 Ferrari 575) enters the T2-T3 chicane and has harmless spin. But he begins to move back towards the proper direction just as Robert Lechner arrives at the spot. The No. 36 Aston Martin demolishes the front of the Ferrari and comes to rest a few meters down the road. Kessel emerges quite upset at the marshals. If his interpretation is correct, he has a right to be. There was ample to time to flag the blind entrance to the corner and also give orders to Kessel as to when it was safe to return. If those instructions were not displayed then it was another case of bad marshaling. It is also a bitter pill for the Kessel team as they had rebuilt the front of the car during an all-nighter. It now looks just like it did yesterday. This brings out the safety car and for the duration of this rather lengthy interruption the cars were routed straight down the road rather than through the two-chicane complex. Nearly all the cars elect to make their first stops and handover to the second driver. A significant exception is the No. 33 Jetalliance Aston Martin. Karl Wendlinger remains out and assumes the lead as the Maseratis all stop.
The No. 74 Ebimotors Porsche briefly inherited the GT2 class lead during the pit stop exchanges. The race passed the half-hour mark, still under the control of the safety car. There was a rather scary incident during the period when a tow vehicle (not a blue Felberymayr) heads counter to the race direction to take up a spot at Turn 1. Several cars arrived on the scene, fortunately with ample time to take evasive action. The race went green again at the 18 lap mark (and would stay green for the remainder—thank Ceacescu’s ghost). Three significant cars received penalties for various infractions during the safety car period. These included the now GT2 leading No. 97 Porsche (now with Matteo Malucelli) and the Tech 9 Porsche a short distance behind (with Leo Machitski aboard). One of the consequences of all this was that the usually unheralded Gillet Vertigo was up to 11th overall. That is all the more remarkable as Renaud Kuppens stopped on the first lap to make the mandatory driver change to Bas Leinders. The rain, a good supply of Pirellis, plus Leiners’ skill helped to give the little car one of its best outings ever. The rain increased soon after the restart, now heavier than at any time during the far more chaotic GT3 race of Saturday. Enrico Toccacelo (No. 22 BMS Aston Martin) completed a fairly lazy complete 360 as a result of the wet, lightly tagging the wall en route. The damage would later transpire to be significant. Gerold Ried also goes off, heading towards the tires with the No. 69 Porsche. But he managed to extract the car without needing the appearance of a somewhat different Felbermayr owned vehicle. The conditions also meant that several GT2 cars were running faster than most of the midfield GT1 runners. Dirk Müller was now aboard the class leading No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari and would continue to increase the gap to the Porsches. This was a bit of a turnaround from earlier in the weekend. The track seemed to suit the Porsches but a series of mostly self-inflicted events conspired to knock the German cars down the order.
The No. 33 Aston Martin continued to stretch out a yawning gap to the Maseratis behind but it was somewhat artificial. Karl Wendlinger was yet to stop. No doubt the Jetalliance team was banking on another caution period. That would transpire to be a bad bet. Nevertheless, Wendlinger was intent on lengthening the gap as much as possible in the now quite heavy rain. While most of the field was running some seven seconds slower than their qualifying efforts, Wendlinger was consistently some three seconds quicker than the other GT1 frontrunners. The two Reiter Engineering Lamborghinis had been running very well behind the Maseratis but very nearly took each other out. Peter Kox in No. 8 was forced into a shortcut at the chicane and there was a firm side contact between the black cars – Stefan Mucke the aggressor. He lost his l/hand mirror.
The Kox car would eventually succumb to mechanical injuries from this incident. Meanwhile, the second in GT2 car of Malucelli had a moment all on his own as does the No. 53 Edil Cris Ferrari.
The 50-minute mark passes with a few teams making their second stops. The No 2 Vitaphone entry receives what appears to be its second penalty, at least temporarily knocking Montanari and Ramos out of contention. Miguel Ramos would have to halt his chase of the second place Maserati of Andrea Piccini. The two Reiter Lamborghinis recovered well, holding fourth and fifth, with the other Vitaphone Maserati next but losing ground. Giambattista Giannoccaro headed toward Turn 1, trying to make a routine lapping maneuver on the No .62 Ecosse Ferrari. However, Andrew Kirkaldy appeared turned in with the MC12 barely half a car alongside, and unable to slow enough to miss contact. The two cars collided with the Ferrari executing a 360-degree spin. Both continued but required a stop to make repairs. The Maserati apparently suffered more terminal damage, coming to a halt soon after emerging from the pits with the driver having to hunt for functioning gears. Barring incident, the GT2 contest was already decided. Toni Vilander and Dirk Müller had opened up a lap gap on the second in class BMS Porsche of Emmanuel Collard and Matteo Malucelli. The Gillet Vertigo was up to ninth. Wendlinger continued stretching his lead. The No. 33 Aston Martin was the fastest car on course, with the No. 5 Corvette too far behind (Deletraz at the wheel still) to truly challenge. Finally, the blue No. 33 Aston Martin stopped at the 65-minute mark, handing the race lead to Andrea Piccini in the No. 11 Maserati. He in turn had 20 seconds in hand over Thomas Biagi in the No. 1 Maserati. Both still had another stop ahead of them, as did the erstwhile leading Aston. Indeed, the handover from Wendlinger to Ryan Sharp went slowly and the car overshot its pit by a few meters. Sharp returned to the fray in third place, 53 seconds behind the new leader and 13 seconds behind Biagi in second. The GT2 leading Porsche was up to 6th overall with the Gillet next. Miguel Ramos spun the No. 2 Maserati and clipped the wall with the rear bodywork, necessitating an extra, yet efficient stop. Deletraz got the No. 5 Corvette temporarily stuck in the wall. He extracted it with the rear wing hanging askew, prominently displaying sponsor www.currency.ch. He was unable to even complete the lap, tagging the wall again. Christophe Bouchut (No. 7 Lamborghini) was now the fastest man on the course, rising from 6th to 4th. Moreover, the Reiter entry had made both of its stops. The No. 99 Porsche of (now) Sean Edwards was also going great guns, running fast, faster, and then too fast. Remarkably, this would be the last retirement of the race - with all the abandonments coming from spins, accidents, and damage from accidents. Edwards understeered into the wall, after showing really impressive speed (only three tenths off Collard’s best lap). Müller brought the GT2 leading Ferrari in for its last stop with less then 40 minutes remaining. The No. 97 Porsche continued to drop further off the pace, lately as a result of a one-minute penalty for a double fault at the chicane (or missing a red light at pit exit?). Marc Lieb took over second in class until his No. 66 Proton Porsche made its next stop. The second place No. 1 Maserati made its second stop at about the same time, Biagi handing back to Fabrizio Gollin. Both of the leading Maseratis complete their stops, as had the No. 7 Lamborghini—presently in fourth. Ahead of it, Sharp would still need to call at the pits with No. 33 Aston Martin. Sharp nearly lost it at Turn 1 as the rain once again picked up. Nevertheless, Bouchut set his personal best lap, only three seconds above the qualifying average. Gollin appeared to have some gear selection woes and briefly stopped, allowing Bouchut into third place. Montanari was fourth in Maserati No. 2 and Toni Vilander was now in the GT2 leading Ferrari and in an excellent 5th place.
The Vertigo rose as high as sixth before its last stop. A cautious (Kuppens) finish left them 11th overall—still a major accomplishment, first in class of course. Going into the last 15 minutes the positions developed considerable stability with only the second stop of the No. 33 Aston Martin being inevitable. There was a measure of how drivers were becoming accustomed to the circuit (and also how conditions once again improved) as at one moment four cars managed to negotiate a single chicane together without incident. Both Bouchut and Montanari (a lap down) were particularly fast but for the former any hope of catching the leading No. 11 Maserati was diminishing. Finally, with 12 minutes to go Sharp peeled into the pits and handed No. 33 back to Karl Wendlinger. The team’s relatively slow stops and poor strategy had doomed them to only a fourth place finish while Bouchut inherited a well-deserved second place. Montanari / Ramos were third for Vitaphone, Longin / Kumpen fifth in the C5-R.
With barely three laps left the rain was on again and Joe Macari had a moment at the roundabout with the No. 16 JMB Maserati as did Peter Kutemann in the team’s other car. These two incidents sealed the Citation Cup contest with the No. 18 SRT Corvette of Tom Cloet and Gilles Vannelet taking this sub-classification. The No. 97 Porsche recovered well from its penalties but would finish a lap down on the GT2 class winning Ferrari. . The Playteam Maserati of the Andreas finished in front, backing off at the end slightly but still 40 seconds clear of the No. 7 Murcielago. Lamborghini has the consolation of leaving Romania with the lead in the manufacturers’ contest. Piccini / Bertolini and Mucke / Bouchut are among the strongest pairings this year, and with the Maserati apparently the car to have here, it was a first win for the Playteam team.
It was a weekend of high drama, low comedy, and some organizational miscues. Importantly, the residents of the European Union’s newest member received their introduction to top level sports car racing. They’ve got some work today before this can go ahead again, but they were unlucky with the weather. A one pit stop race (why not?) would have made it more straightforward for the thousands of Rumanians to follow, and would negate the need for that thoughtful early Carsport stop, for example. | 
