FIA GT Monza – Race Report

The second round of the 2008 FIA GT Championship saw victory go to Belgian team Selleslagh Racing Team, SRT, with their Corvette C6-R. A fter qualifying in second place in the wet, triple FIA GT Champion Christophe Bouchut and his team-mate Xavier Maassen took the win in Monza today.

After a weekend of untypically dreadful weather, the conditions finally improved for race morning which meant a dry race when practice and qualifying had been in the wet, hardly ideal for gauging the correct set-up for some.  The skies did, however, look very threatening at times.

The SRT pair, Bouchut and Maassen put in a great performance, following pole-man Alex Müller in the #36 Jetalliance Aston Martin in the first stint, then taking the lead after the driver changes and maintaining that position until the end of the race.

This first FIA GT victory for both SRT and young rookie Maassen is Bouchut’s 14th win in the Championship, his eighth overall victory, with four different cars – the Chrysler Viper, Aston Martin DBR9, Lamborghini Murciélago and now the Corvette C6.R.

After Vitaphone finished second in Silverstone with Bertolini and Bartels, it was the turn of the team’s second Maserati MC 12 to claim a podium finish today. Miguel Ramos, already second in Monza in 2007, gave an excellent repeat performance, while newcomer Xandi Negrão put in a fine race to bring the car home in second place in just his second race.

Simonsen and Peter, in the #10 Gigawave Aston Martin DBR9, posted a second consecutive third place finish. The circumstances at Monza though were quite different, as it required a fine drive from both pilots for Gigawave to recover from an early off-track excursion at Parabolica from Simonsen.

With three different makes in the top three, fourth place was taken by the #6 Phoenix Racing Corvette of Gollin and Hezemans; the sister car of Deletraz and Fässler spun out after clashing with the #36 Jetalliance Aston Martin in a battle for fifth place, both cars retiring from the race as a result.

Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer: “Deletraz smashed into my rear wheel under braking – causing us both to slide into the gravel trap and leaving both of us without points. A completely unnecessary manoeuvre, I’m extremely disappointed.”

It was a bitter sweet weekend for the #36 crew after Muller’s pole lap on Saturday, the team needed their pit crew to put in some great work on Sunday morning after after Lichtner-Hoyer crashed heavily in the wet warm-up session. “The track was very wet because of the heavy rain. I lost the car in Ascari and hit the crash barriers sideways at about 120 kph. There was quite a lot of damage, so a big thanks to our mechanics.” Sadly the clash with Deletraz meant that the crew wouldn’t be rewarded with a points finish.

Bertolini and Bartels were fifth, a topsy turvy race for the Vitaphone MC12 pair, the car suffering a puncture after recovering quickly from their 16th starting position on the grid only to have to attack again.

The leading Saleen S7R was the PK Carsport car of Kumpen and Longin, who were delighted with the improved performance. Starting right at the back after a first-lap collision in the wet qualifying session, they recovered well to finish sixth. The Larbre Competition Saleen also finished in the points, Vosse and Franchi finishing eighth.

Last year’s Monza winners, Wendlinger and Sharp, started from the back of the grid after a tyre failure in qualifying. They climbed up to fourth after a fine performance, but in the final pit stop, the ECU unit failed and the car would not restart. They lost three minutes, dropping back and finishing 7th.

Karl Wendlinger: “Everything was more or less going according to plan from the start, I moved up the field swiftly and without a hitch. Then Ryan again made a big contribution to improve even further. The podium was within reach. But you’re just powerless when it comes down to technical issues. In the end, we have to be content with seventh place.”

In the points battle, Bouchut and Maassen are now in the lead, with 15 points. Six drivers are tied on 12 points : Wendlinger/Sharp, Bertolini/Bartels and Peter/Simonsen. In the Teams classification, Vitaphone now have a seven-point lead over Jetalliance.

GT2
At the chequered flag it looked as if it was a perfect day for Belgium with Prospeed Competition crossing the line in first position with their lead #61 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Emmanuel Collard and Richard Westbrook.

The Porsche was followed by the two AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT2 cars, Silverstone winners Bruni and Vilander ahead of Biagi and Montanari – the two former GT1 drivers claiming their first podium in GT2.

However, the Porsche was later excluded due to a pitlane infringement. The team has appealed and the GT2 results remain provisional pending that appeal.

Provisionally, therefore, AF Corse claimed its first double of the year, to increase their lead in the GT2 Teams and Drivers classifications.

The #62 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 GT2 moved up to provisional third to take their first points of the season, followed by the two BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari cars.

The two CR Scuderia cars came in sixth and seventh, The team ran higher levels of downforce to allow for the wet weather conditions but unfortunately the rain held off during the race and both CRS Ferraris struggled for the straight line speed which is so vital at Monza. Andrew Kirkaldy explained: “We didn’t get it right today but we’re a new team and we know it takes time to get everything right at such a high level of racing. We need to go away and look at where we went wrong and I’m confident we will turn things around.”

Argentine drivers Russo and Perez Companc claiming their first point for Advanced Engineering Pecom Racing Team.

G2 / Citation Cup
The Belgian theme continued in G2, with the #101 Gillet Vertigo emerging as the only car in that class to be classified. The #111 ARC Bratislava Saleen S7R, which had a big lead in the class, had a fuel problem, while the two Mosler MT900R cars entered by GTO Charouz failed to finish.

Kenneth Heyer had to pit in his Mosler after the first lap with a fuel pressure problem, the car eventually retiring, with the second car spinning in avoidance of a Ferrari and the car refusing to re-fire.

Austrian team AT Racing claimed its second successive Citation Cup victory today, with Wolfgang Kaufmann and Aliaksandr Talkanitsa finishing 18th overall in the venerable Corvette C5-R.