FIA GT1, Sachsenring – Championship Race Report
Hohenadel & Piccini Take The Win For Hexis The opening lap was one of the messiest starts in the history of the FIA GT1 World Championship, with incidents in both the first and second corner. Going into Turn 1 pole-sitter Maxime Martin pushed the #3 Hexis AMR Aston Martin of Stef Dusseldorp into the gravel, with Stefan Mücke’s Aston hitting the Ford GT. In the turmoil behind them the #22 JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R went wide as well.
One corner later there was more drama when Karl Wendlinger in the #5 Swiss Racing Team Lamborghini drove into the Young Driver AMR #7 of Tomas Enge. The Austrian spun and was then hit by his teammate Max Nilssen and the Ford GT of Vanina Ickx. The damage on the two Lamborghinis was too much for them to continue, while the Belgian Racing Ford GT returned to the pit and went straight into its box. As a result of the crashes the safety car was deployed.
Just before the safety car came back in, the rain that had already hampered the support races earlier in the day returned and the race director quickly declared a wet track. At the end of Lap 5 the race was restarted. Shortly afterwards, the Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT of Maxime Martin returned to the pitlane with damage.
Taking advantage of the mayhem were the #8 Young Driver AMR Aston of Stefan Mücke and the #4 Hexis AMR Aston of Christian Hohenadel. The two Astons took the lead of the race and started a frantic battle that included banging doors on multiple occasions. On Lap 10 Hohenadel made his move into Turn 1 and took the lead of the race. Soon after, Dominik Schwager also passed the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 and put the #37 All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport Lamborghini into second position.
As the pit window opened, after 25 minutes of racing, Hohenadel was still leading - now 3.349 seconds ahead of Schwager and 7.096 seconds ahead of Stefan Mücke.
At the first opportunity the top three came in for their mandatory pit stops, which allowed the All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport #38 of Markus Winkelhock to move into the lead of the race.
After its pitstop Marc Basseng returned the #38 Lamborghini just in front of the #3 Hexis AMR Aston, but at Turn 7 the right rear wheel on the Lamborghini failed and Basseng bounced through the gravel. The German stopped his car on the side of the track at Turn 8.
When all the pit stops were completed and all cars were back on track, it was still the #4 Hexis AMR Aston Martin that was in the lead. Nicky Pastorelli was second, now just over five seconds behind the Aston, while Darren Turner was third; thus leaving the top three intact. The second Hexis AMR Aston, which had dropped down the order at the start, returned to fifth, courtesy of another perfect pit stop by the Hexis pitcrew.
Unfortunately, on lap 28 Piccione went off and returned to the pit to have his right front wheel replaced. This resulted in all the hard work becoming undone as the #3 car dropped down the order to 11th position.
The gaps between the cars at the front meant that there was no real battle for the podium places, but the battle for fourth was interesting, with the Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-Rs and the Exim Bank Team China Corvette very close to each other. Just a few seconds further down the road, the JR Motorsports Nissans and the #40 Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GT were battling for seventh position. Despite being on each other’s bumpers, the nature of the track made it hard for any of the drivers to pass for position; only Hennerici was able to make up a position and moved into eighth place.
After one hour of racing at the Sachsenring circuit, Andrea Piccini was the first to cross the finish line, taking another win for the Hexis AMR team. All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport’s Nicky Pastorelli was the second driver to cross the line, with Darren Turner taking third for Young Driver AMR. Sumo Power GT did well in finishing fourth and fifth, with the Corvette of Mike Hezemans and Nick Catsburg completing the top six.
The next round of the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship will take place at Silverstone on June 4/5. MtC |
