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FIA GT3, Silverstone
- Race Two Report Faster Racing by DB Motorsport made it a Dutch one-two victory at Silverstone today after dominating round 4 of the FIA GT3 European Championship. Nick Catsburg, Harrie Kolen, Jeroen den Boer and Hoevert Vos managed to deliver the first one-two victory of the season to their team and BMW Motorsport. At the start things went wrong for several cars. While Martin managed to overtake Catsburg for the lead, a couple of drivers swerved over the track and it was the Audi R8 LMS of Michael Rossi that hit the back of the Heico Motorsport Mercedes of Brice Bosi. Bosi’s car veered off to the right and slammed into the pit wall before bouncing back across the track, where it was collected by the Team LMP Aston Martin DBRS9 #8 and the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS #33.
The safety car was deployed immediately after and remained on the track until the end of Lap 4. Shortly after the restart the MTECH Ferrari of Michael Lyons went off at Copse corner, but this time local yellows were enough.
On Lap 8 Catsburg passed Martin again and immediately pulled away from the Aston Martin. Lapping around a second per lap quicker than the Belgian driver, the Dutchman quickly created a big lead over the Aston Martin and the Ferrari of Matt Griffin in third place. Behind Griffin Lunardi, Den Boer and Castellacci got into a fight for fourth place. Even though the pit window was open, several teams opted to stay out a bit longer and this resulted in Matt Griffin being able to pass Maxime Martin into the last corner on lap 13. One lap later the Irishman was the first driver from inside the top 10 to come in for his pit stop. Catsburg pitted from the lead on lap 15, now almost ten seconds clear of Maxime Martin, who also came in for his pit stop. When all cars had returned to the track the Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 was 18 seconds clear of its nearest rivals. Jerome Demay, Gael Lesoudier and Hoevert Vos were very close to each other in the battle for second place. Demay was unable to fend off Lesoudier and Vos, however, and quickly dropped behind the BMW and the Aston.
Demay would be in a fight for position almost until the end of the race as Daniel Brown, Joakim Lambotte and Philippe Giauque were soon be after him, followed by Federico Leo joining the fight a lap later. The cars kept swapping positions in what turned out to be a great spectacle for the spectators around the Silverstone circuit. At the end of lap 21 Demay was side-by-side with Brown and, as the cars went onto the 22nd lap, Brown managed to take the position. At the front, Hoever Vos managed to overtake Gael Lesoudier for second place and make it a Faster Racing by DB Motorsport one-two. Vos then started to put in lap times that were quicker than Kolen and the gap between the two BMWs became smaller each lap. Eight minutes before the end of the race the gap was just ten seconds, with Kolen now over two seconds per lap quicker. Behind him Demay was in a battle with Leo and the Graff Racing car of Lambotte, a battle he lost and the Audi dropped further down the order. Heading into the last lap the gap between Kolen and Vos was only 0.242 seconds and into the first corner Vos made his move, surprising his colleague who was not fully aware that the #35 BMW was that close. Fortunately everything went well and Vos was able to race to victory after completing 27 laps, his team mate finishing one second behind to make it the first one-two victory for Faster Racing by DB Motorsport and BMW Motorsport in the FIA GT3 European Championship.
Gael Lesoudier finished in third place, just over 5 seconds behind the race winner, with the AF Corse cars of Dan Brown and Federico Leo taking fourth and fifth. Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof, who spun his Lamborghini in the last lap, which meant the Reiter car only finished in 13th place. The next rounds of the 2011 FIA GT3 European Championship will take place at the Navarra circuit on July 2 and 3. MtC |
