FIA GT Championship – Adria – Preview
Contrasts

After the long pause since that classic 24 hour event at Spa, it’s Adria this weekend, for a two hour race on Saturday evening. Perhaps the off-track events will be at least as significant as those on-track though?

Thomas Biagi is looking like the favourite for the FIA GT title, with events at Brno, Zolder and Nogaro to come. 14 points at Spa was only beaten by the 18 of Hezemans and Deletraz, so it is closer than it was before the 24 Hours – but it’s still a nine point gap (but with 40 available if anyone can win all four, which is highly unlikely).

1 Thomas Biagi 45
2 Mike Hezemans 36
Jean-Denis Deletraz 36
3 Andrea Bertolini 34
Andrea Piccini 34
4 Michael Bartels 29
Christian Montanari 29
Miguel Ramos 29
5 Anthony Kumpen 28.5
Bert Longin 28.5

After three hours around Adria last year, only five GT1s finished ahead of the GT2s – headed by the pair of Vitaphone Maseratis. But if ever a circuit suited the rejuvenated Lamborghinis, Adria might be it (the Zakspeed Saleen started from pole last year).

“I like to go there,” says Peter Kox, “because the track people are very nice and I think the racing will be good, as last year showed. We were all pessimistic about this circuit, but in the end it was very good because the fans can see a lot of the track and enjoyed it very much. Which is a lesson for us that we not always should look at our own interests… This together with the fact that it will be an evening event will definitely be worth watching!"

Karl Wendlinger, so impressive at Spa, reckons that the Jetalliance Aston Martins will be just as competitive at Adria: “We have shown this year that we can be competitive everywhere. This won’t change in Adria. If we are spared from mechanical failures – unlike recently, twice in a row – we will compete for the win in Italy.” 

The Ferraris, notably the AF Corse varieties, have been in the ascendancy this year in GT2, but Spa turned the GT2 driver points upside down, thanks to a maximum 20 points for Emmanuel Collard and Matteo Malucelli. These two are right on the tail of Vilander and Muller (three wins) and ahead of Ortelli and Bruni (two wins).

1 Toni Vilander 43
Dirk Müller 43
2 Matteo Malucelli 41
Emmanuel Collard 41
3 Stephane Ortelli 36
Gianmaria Bruni 36
4 Paolo Ruberti 27.5
Damien Pasini 27.5
5 Marc Lieb 26
6 Marcello Zani 24.5
Emanuele Busnelli 24.5
7 Tim Mullen 23
8 Matteo Cressoni 22.5
9 Sean Edwards 20.5
Leo Machitski 20.5

The significant driver changes are in the Scuderia Ecosse entries, where Tim Sugden and Rob Bell drive the #63 car, while Tim Mullen and Darren Turner drive #62. That’s two very strong pairings.

“This round is a night race and with my experience from the Le Mans 24 Hours, I know what’s ahead and that adds an extra dimension to this weekend,” says Rob Bell. “I’ve been running in six hour endurance races, so this two hour event will seem like a sprint I reckon. I’m prepared for it though, so I’ll just be going out there to run consistently at a good pace and bring the car back clean for my team mate, Tim. It should be a good weekend.”

Darren Turner is another recognised winner in a Ferrari 430 and he points out that “Stewart (Roden) tells me Pirelli have made great progress this year so it will be good to see the difference from last year. I know Tim (Mullen) too from Veloqx a few years back so I know how rapid he is and I think we should be on for a good weekend at Adria.”

Tim Sugden has considerable Ferrari 430 experience too (Virgo last year, and with Scuderia Ecosse at Spa, where he helped bring the #63 car home sixth in class), and he is “going out there to win”. Scuderia Ecosse did exactly that last year.

Will Adria favour the Porsches though, with its tight nature and the need for good traction? The Ferraris were quicker last year – but that was against the 996 version of the Porsche, not the 997.

Off-track, the teams will have the latest GT1, 2 and 3 proposals presented to them, which should be interesting.

The race starts at 19.45 local time on Saturday, so approximately an hour of the race will run in darkness.