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FIA GT1, Navarra –
Championship Race Report Lamborghini completed a double at Navarra with victory in the Championship Race to add to the Qualifying Race success earlier in the day. Ricardo Zonta and Frank Kechele in the nr25 Reiter Lamborghini recorded a lights to flag win to collect 33 points for their weekend's work. Their victory margin at the end of a pulsating hour's racing was over 11 seconds.
Second was the Hexis Aston Martin No.9 of Fred Makowiecki and Yann Clairay with the Sumo Power Nissan GT-R No.22 of Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes third.
The Young Driver Aston Martin No.7 of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge finished fourth after a stunning drive from 19th place on the grid.
The All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Maserati No.38 of Nicky Pastorelli and Dominik Schwager scored an impressive fifth place from a lowly starting position of 18th. The Marc VDS Ford GT No.40 of Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin was sixth. Thomas Mutsch, in the Matech Competition Ford GT No.5, severely damaged the car in a collision with the Phoenix Corvette No.13 of Alex Margaritas soon after taking over from Richard Westbrook 40 minutes into the race. The car was eventually retired causing considerable harm to Mutsch's drivers' title hopes.
Sixth place and eight points for the championship leaders Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini in the Vitaphone Maserati No.1 enabled them to stretch their advantage to 35 points. Meanwhile, Kechele moved from seventh to third in the drivers' table. The victory in both the Qualifying Race and Championship Race for Reiter consolidated their second position in the teams' standings. It was the third time this year that the FIA GT1 World Championship has featured a double win for one of the six brands. The Vitaphone Maserati achieved the feat at Brno and the Young Driver Aston Martin No.7 doubled up in Nurburgring. After the race the FIA Stewards gave cars 2 and 38 30-second time penalties for incidents during the race which dropped them to 12th and 9th respectively. Ricardo Zonta, nr25 Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago 670 RS-V "To be back in the car after missing one race and to win again is very nice. I've enjoyed this weekend, this first time I drove here I felt the car was very quick and easy to drive. The team have done a great job; Frank has done a great job. We didn't make any mistakes all weekend and that is very important for us. In my stint the car was very consistent, very good and the team chose to stop me early. We didn't lose, we didn't gain so I think it was a good decision. The trophy for this race is very nice and very heavy and certainly worth winning." Frank Kechele, nr25 Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago 670 RS-V "I think Ricardo had a harder time than me because it was wet in two or three corners in the beginning and we had to be very careful. We were sure of our pace, so we were focused on making sure we didn't make any mistakes. The whole team didn't make any mistakes the whole weekend and that's why I think we deserve this trophy. It is one thing to be fast but to win you need to make no mistakes and we were 100 percent this weekend and that makes me really, really happy. It's a shame I missed the first two races because we could be futher up in the driver's championship and we are also trying to win the team championship. Hans (Reiter) gave me the opportunity to drive in this championship, he put his trust in me and I'm happy to give this back to him." Frederic Makowiecki, nr9 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DB9 "First of all I want to thank Hexis, Michelin and Aston Martin for this season. I made a good start and I quickly made up some positions. During my stint the car was very consistent which allowed me to push and give the car in second position to Yann. He finished the race well and this result is very important for us. Since the start of the championship we haven't done a very good qualifying race, so this weekend we tried to stay on the track and we started in 9th place, which allowed us to do a good job here. I think the last two tracks should suit the Aston Martin, so I hope we can finish the season well."
Yann Clairay, nr9 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DB9 "This is my third race in FIA GT1. I made a very bad qualification as we were P16 and Fred and I had to do well in the first race to be in a good position for the Championship Race. Fred gave me a strong car at the pitstops and now I am very happy for the team with this result."
Jamie Campbell-Walter, nr22 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R "I got a great start as both the Fords in front of me were asleep so I did them both straight away. I outbraked some more into turn three and found myself in P2. When the rain came I had a couple of big moments so I took it easy and let a couple of cars pass. I could see it was just going to be a shower so thought the safest bet was to let them go and then pass them when the rain started. Our car has been great all weekend and this is a fantastic result for the team and for Nissan.”
Warren Hughes, nr22 Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R "Tomas Enge and I were matching each other’s lap times during the second half and we were starting to catch the second placed car. I found myself counting down the laps to the chequered flag as I wanted to be sure of third but also wishing we had a few more laps so I could attack for second place. I drove to the limit today but made very sure I didn’t go over it as Tomas would have pounced.” |
