FIA GT Championship – Zolder – Race Report
Biagi By Four
Muller & Vilander By Seven

Final Driver Points Tables
GT1
1 Thomas Biagi 61 (2 wins)
2 Ryan Sharp 57 (3 wins)
Karl Wendlinger 57
3 Mike Hezemans 55 (2 wins)
Jean-Denis Deletraz 55
4 Christian Montanari 54 (1 win)
Miguel Ramos 54 (1 win)
5 Andrea Bertolini 51 (1 win)
Andrea Piccini 51
6 Michael Bartels 45
7 Anthony Kumpen 43.5
Bert Longin 43.5
8 Jamie Davies 30
Fabio Babini 30

GT2
1 Toni Vilander 73 (6 wins)
Dirk Müller 73
2 Stephane Ortelli 66 (3 wins)
Gianmaria Bruni 66
3 Matteo Malucelli 64 (1 win)
Emmanuel Collard 64
4 Marcello Zani 43.5
5 Tim Mullen 36

And so to the tenth race of the season: not an epic cliff-hanger by any means, but a satisfactory race to conclude a closely fought season. The result rarely seemed in doubt though. Karl Wendlinger made good use of his pole position to lead from the start, in a race that remained dry and cool throughout (so no influence from the weather).

Robert Lechner also made a good getaway, and he slotted into second. These two Jetalliance Aston Martins certainly didn’t run away with it early on, but Lechner was anyway across the gravel on lap 8, and dropping to the tail of the top ten.

But Wendlinger did eventually pull out a secure lead, over the chasing Anthony Kumpen, and the gap was up to eight seconds by lap 20. It grew more quickly after that though (23 seconds by lap 30), and with Ryan Sharp beginning his (short, 39 minutes) middle stint on fresh rubber, it seemed that all the Scot had to do was consolidate the lead, to give the Austrian a clear run to the flag.

"It was a perfect weekend with pole position and in the race there was never any danger we would lose the position,” summed up Wendliner. “The car was very consistent and at the end of the race I didn't need to be at the maximum, there was a nice gap of more than 20 seconds. The joy at finishing second in the championship certainly outweighs the feeling of sorrow for the lost title."

Bert Longin in the #4 Corvette stayed out until lap 64 (hanging onto the lead until then) before handing back to Kumpen, at which point the pit stops were all done, and Wendlinger had a lead of – just about exactly the same as when he first pitted.

Kumpen had Biagi on his tail to the flag, the little Italian having been running third, behind Kumpen, towards the end of his first stint. It was these three (Jetalliance #33, Corvette #4 and Maserati #1) that dominated the event, once the early going had settled down. Biagi looked as though he could have passed the Belgian Corvette, but why take the risk? Third was enough to take the title, despite Sharp and Wendlinger taking their third win of the season.

If it was a smooth and efficient run for at least one of the Jetalliance Aston Martins, it wasn’t quite that for most of the other DBR9s. The Fassler / Gollin Phoenix entry was carrying too much ballast to make an impression in qualifying (when it had braking problems), started unimpressively and was an early retirement (gearbox). The Gigawave car had to start from the back of the grid after a buzzed engine in qualifying, and was then pushed down the pitlane after just 24 laps – and into the garage and out.

The Babini / Davies BMS Aston Martin hadn’t looked like making much of an impression in Fabio Babini’s hands early on, Jamie Davies taking over early, but struggling with the gearbox. “It jumped from fourth to second, and I was struggling to slow the car down when the Maserati hit me.”

That was Pier Guidi in the #12 Playteam car, which had originally been running third (after Lechner’s off), ahead of Biagi, and Bertolini in the sister blue MC12. Pier Guidi limped his car in with a deranged front wheel, while the #23 DBR9 also had too much damage at the back to be able to continue.

The Bertolini / Piccini Playteam Maserati had a curiously uncompetitive race, and this championship challenger never really looked like playing a part in the title outcome (although Bertolini was running fourth after Pier Guidi’s incident), a situation that was resolved good and proper when Bertolini ended up beached in the gravel on lap 24. Two laps were lost, and although that didn’t stop Piccini having a good go on fresh rubber in the middle stint, all the Andreas could salvage was a single point.

Montanari and Ramos in Vitaphone Maserati #1 also came into the meeting as potential championship winners, but the former was barged off the track as early as the opening lap – and finished that lap near the back of the field, 21 seconds behind the leader. That gap doubled by the end of the race, and fifth was the result. At least they fared better than the #11 Maserati, which had also started the race on 50 points.

Christophe Bouchut and Marc Duez in the #7 Lamborghini knew they were doomed even before the start. An engine failure on Saturday meant starting the race from the back of the grid – but they would also have to take a two minute penalty stop within the first three laps, because this was the fourth engine replacement for this car this season: only three are allowed. So if you’re unlucky with your engines, you get hit with four starts from the back – plus no hope of a good finish at the last race of the season.

Bouchut had some sort of consolation with the fastest lap of the race, but the Murcielago was a retirement just four laps before the end.

The possible championship challenger we’ve barely mentioned so far is the #5 Corvette – but the usually fast-starting Hezemans dropped from fourth on the grid to eighth at the end of lap 1. Could he and Deletraz repeat their form from Nogaro? No they couldn’t. The C6.R just didn’t have the pace this time, having suffered oil pump problems in qualifying – and Hezemans’ bad start on the dirty side of the track left him stuck behind Gounon in the #22 BMS Aston Martin. Loss of practice time meant that tyre choice was compromised, and then Deletraz was ‘jumped’ by the charging Longin in the middle stint. The #5 came home a disappointing fourth – although only two and a half seconds behind championship winner Biagi. Hezemans and Deletraz have promised to return next year.

The last significant runner at Zolder was the Peter Kox / Jos Menten #28 Lamborghini, which the latter started, but pitted as early as lap 14 (from eighth, behind Hezemans). Kox rebounded to run second at the end of his stint, but a slow stop (for more tyres) dropped Menten a lap down until the rest pitted, and he brought the Murcielago home sixth.

“I was confident because since the beginning of the season the Maserati, the Michelin tyres and the Vitaphone Racing Team have always been very competitive and starting from 6th was not a problem,” said a jubilant Biagi. “In the race the car was very consistent, with very good pace. That race was the hardest of my career because I have never arrived at the end of a championship with so many drivers fighting so closely. It is a dream to be here but it is a shame that Michael Bartels is not on the same points as I have."

“The car was performing well,” added Michael Bartels, “the team did very good pitstops and I think it was a good performance to finish where we needed to win the championship, everything was under control. When you looked at the championship points before we came here it was guaranteed not to be a boring race, in the end it was a clear victory for Karl and Ryan, they did a fantastic performance today.”

GT2 was even more clearcut than GT1, with Dirk Muller and Toni Vilander running away to the win, although #50 didn’t finally take up first place until near the end, when Xavier Pompidou eventually made his Ebimotors Porsche’s second stop (he’d been in radio trouble).

The sister AF Corse Ferrari was never a threat once Gianmaia Bruni dropped to the tail of the field on the opening lap, this one finishing fifth – and carrying 103 kg of ballast, it was always going to be a struggle anyway.

The ProSpeed Porsche (Marcs Lieb and Basseng) went for softer rubber, which was a better choice than the mediums on the (potential title-winning) 997 of Collard and Malucelli, but despite Lieb suffering from flu, the #60 Porsche was in contention – until it lost two laps with the same problem it suffered at the Spa 24 Hours (flying rubber causing damage, a water leak, in the front wheelarch). It finished eighth.

Collard and Malucelli finished a disappointing fourth, third going to Aguas and Mediani in the #59 Ferrari – which did its job and took points off the Porsche (but with no real affect on the title).

The Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris finished sixth and seventh, with Tim Mullen having set the fastest lap of the race in #62 – but he and Darren Turner faded with rubber pick-up problems. The team’s five points matched the five of the BMS Porsche, so the Scottish team stayed third in the team points – but the combined points of these three cars didn’t match the total scored by the AF Corse Ferraris.

Nine wins out nine in the two hour races made it a crushingly dominant performance from the Italian team. Perhaps it’s time to look at the format of the races (race length and number of stops) and the tyre rules (picking two sets) ahead of the 2008 season. This isn’t really endurance racing as we used to know it.
MC