FIA GT1 World Championship, Abu Dhabi - Qualifying Race

Even before the start of the first Qualifying Race of the new season there was some controversy as the pole position winning All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport Lamborghini was given a five-place grid penalty. The German team was said to have started the #37 car with an external battery just before going out in Q1 yesterday, contrary to the GT1 World regulations. As a result of the penalty Young Driver AMR's Darren Turner was promoted to pole position.

Things got even worse for the All-Inkl.com team right after the start. As Makowiecki and Turner went into turn 1 side by side Tomas Enge missed his braking point and hit the #41 Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT. The #7 Young Driver AMR Aston spun and clipped the unfortunate Pastorelli in his Lamborghini before being hit by the unsighted DKR Engineering Corvette. Three cars were already out after just one corner.

Darren Turner was unable to pull away and ten minutes into the race he was just three seconds clear of Makowiecki’s Ford and Westbrook’s Nissan. Further behind Dutch rookie Nick Catsburg did well in the Exim Bank Team China Corvette and despite continuing pressure from Jamie Campbell-Walter and Marc Basseng he was still in sixth place after 9 laps. On lap 10 though Campbell-Walter passed the Corvette into turn 11 and as Catsburg tried to react he pushed the Corvette just over its limits. A perfect 360 was the result and he lost just a few seconds, but Basseng’s Lamborghini squeezed through to take eighth place from him.

The top three had just gone onto lap 14 when the pit window opened and it was Ricardo Zonta who was the first driver to come in for the mandatory stop. Several other drivers followed his example. Turner and Makowiecki opted to come in on the next lap, while the JR Motorsports cars stayed out and took a gamble.

Young Driver AMR lost the lead on pit lane to Marc VDS Racing Team as the Ford GT rejoined just in front of the Aston Martin DBR9. But into turn 2 Stefan Mücke felt something was wrong with the left front wheel and he went straight. The German returned to the pit and retired from the race.

After the JR Motorsports Nissans made their pit stops Dumbreck rejoined the track next to the Ford GT now driven by Maxime Martin. The team's gamble nearly paid off, but the momentum favored the Ford and Martin pulled into the lead, leaving the rest of the field behind. As the pit window closed on lap 17 the gap between the two leaders and the rest of the field was already up to six seconds.

Dumbreck kept challenging Martin, reducing the gap to just four tenths, but it seemed impossible for the Nissan to pass the Ford. Dumbreck’s teammate Lucas Luhr was able to pass for position and on lap 23 he moved into third place, relegating Enrique Bernoldi to fourth place.

The fourth Nissan GT-R, driven by David Brabham, was a bit further down the field in tenth place. Despite damage to the front of the Nissan GT-R Brabham managed to pass the #5 Swiss Racing Team Lamborghini and the #4 Hexis AMR Aston and found himself in eighth place, there were just under ten minutes remaining though.

Peter Dumbreck realized it would take a rather bold move in the final laps to win this Qualifying Race and he backed down as the leaders went onto the final lap, knowing that a second place finish would mean a strong starting position for the Championship Race.

After 31 laps Maxime Martin crossed the line to take the chequered flag and the first win for Marc VDS Racing Team. Dumbreck finished just 1.476 seconds behind and Lucas Luhr completed the podium for JR Motorsports, at 16.593 seconds from the race winner.

Marcel ten Caat