1000km Algarve. Race – Half Page Summary
Great Racing

A thrilling race in the hills. The advantage that Pescarolo achieved by staying out of trouble when all around were having problems persisted to the end of the 215-lap 1000km of the Algarve. Jean-Christophe Boullion and Christophe Tinseau had a trouble free run, except for one early stop to fix the front bodywork. And with no safety car periods to interrupt the flow of the race, they were able to increase their points advantage in the championship, despite an extra stop for fuel with just four laps to go.

Behind the Pescarolo, the 007 Aston Martin was unable to recover the ground lost by Stefan Mücke when he spun off the track 75 minutes into the race, despite the best efforts of Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge.

The ORECA team failed to live up to their promise in practice and qualifying, with a fuel leak stymieing the challenge of the no 11 car of Lapierre and Panis, and both Bruno Senna and Tiago Monteiro losing ground with off-track excursions. No shame in third and fourth, but probably de Chaunac’s men would have hoped for better.

A valiant effort from the Strakka Racing Ginetta Zytek saw it one of just six retirements. Danny Watts made a sterling start, but sadly the car developed a misfire, which was a symptom of more serious electrical issues.

In LMP2, the Quifel Ginetta Zytek completed what was practically the perfect weekend for the home team, translating the class pole into a class win with relative ease; a great performance from Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral. Second in the class was a hard-fought affair, with the Racing Box Lola-Judd of Andrea Ceccato, Filippo Francioni and Giacomo Piccini taking the position from the GAC Zytek in the last half-hour of the race.

In GT2, a typically tense fight went all the way to the flag; Rob Bell and Gimmi Bruni bringing the JMW Ferrari 430GT home a scant five seconds ahead of the surprisingly fast Porsche of the IMSA Performance team; Patrick Pilet being one of the stars of the race. The Team Modena Ferrari was third, having dropped back in the last hour of the race.

Quotes after the race:

Christophe Tinseau: “It was a great race for us. The car was really easy to drive, very easy to get through the traffic, which was very important of course.”

Tomas Enge: “It’s the first time I’ve driven where there’s been a swimming pool next to our pit. Our hotel was on the beach, so we’ve had a good time. No seriously, second is not too bad and we’re looking forward to the next two races, the last two races of the championship. We think that our car and the drivers should be more suited to the Nürburgring and Silverstone."

Rob Bell: "That was really tough - probably the hardest race of my life. Gimmi did a great job because the Pilet car was really fast today."

Pedro Lamy: "It was a super race. I watched the whole thing. Of course I really wanted Tiago (Monteiro) to win. It is great for Portugal, and great for the Algarve. The circuit is a really, really good one, but the traffic must have been very bad for the drivers out there."

Paul Truswell