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Vitaphone clinches victory and title

The Vitaphone Maserati squad enjoyed the perfect weekend at the Zolder FIA GT Championship finale, claiming race victory and the GT1 drivers' crown

Alessandro Pier Guidi and Matteo Bobbi dominated the race to notch up their first victory together, while team boss Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini sealed the title with a conservative drive. Third place, behind their championship rivals Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen in the PK-Carsport Chevrolet Corvette, was enough to give them the crown by two points.

Pier Guidi and Bobbi never looked like being beaten in the two-hour race. Pier Guidi inherited pole position after Kumpen was penalised five grid places for a yellow-flag infringement in qualifying and drove away from his rivals.

The Italian was 13 seconds up after 10 laps and continued to build his lead through the opening stint. The final margin of victory was a shade over 20 seconds.

Pier Guidi, who returned to the championship at the Spa 24 Hours in August, said: "This was the perfect race for us. The car was very fast today."

Bartels, who won his third FIA GT title together with Bertolini, said: "It's something special to win a third title together. It shows the combination is working. It wasn't an easy race because we knew that if we made one mistake we could lose it."

Hezemans and Kumpen reckoned they did the maximum in their attempt to become champions.

"To come from sixth on the grid to second was good, but it was the most we could do," said Hezemans, "There was nothing we could do about a light Maserati when we had 60kg [of success ballast]."

The PK-Carsport team carried out its pre-race promise to protest Vitpaphone, which it has accused of race-fixing this season. It admitted that it has protested Vitaphone on three counts, but has yet to reveal details.

Britain's Richard Westbrook claimed the GT2 crown with class victory in the ProSpeed Porsche 911 GT3-RSR he shared with Marco Holzer. The lead ProSpeed car dominated the race after taking the lead from the AF Corse Ferrari driven by Gianmaria Bruni after a dozen laps.

Westbrook said he had mixed emotions about winning the title without usual co-driver Emmanuel Collard, who was moved over to the Brixia Racing 911 GT3-RSR in order to maximise Porsche's championship chances.

"I didn't want to go up on the podium without my regular team-mate; it didn't feel real," he said. "After I passed Gimmi [Bruni] it was a pretty straightforward race."

Bruni and Toni Vilander, who arrived at Zolder with a three-point lead, could only finish fourth in class. Their Ferrari was hamstrung by 50kg of success ballast and another 50kg for running two platinum-rated drivers, which resulted in braking problems and the need for fresh tyres at each of its two pitstops.


Pos  Drivers               Cl     Car                Time
 1   Pier Guidi/Bobbi      GT1    Maserati   2h01m07.362s
 2   Hezemans/Kumpen       GT1    Corvette   +    20.354s
 3   Bartels/Bertolini     GT1    Maserati   +    35.557s
 4   Maassen/Biagi         GT1    Corvette   +  1m09.803s
 5   Bernoldi/Streit       GT1    Corvette   +     1 laps
 6   Longin/Ruffier        GT1    Corvette   +     1 laps
 7   Westbrook/Holzer      GT2    Porsche    +     3 laps
 8   Malucelli/Ruberti     GT2    Ferrari    +     3 laps
 9   Kirkaldy/Bell         GT2    Ferrari    +     3 laps
10   Vilander/Bruni        GT2    Ferrari    +     3 laps
11   Bergmeister/Mamerow   GT2    Porsche    +     3 laps
12   Collard/Ragginger     GT2    Porsche    +     3 laps
13   Barba/Cadei           GT2    Ferrari    +     4 laps
14   O'Young/Lieb          GT2    Porsche    +     4 laps
15   Maassen/Ashburn       GT2    Porsche    +     5 laps
16   Companc/Russo         GT2    Ferrari    +     6 laps

Retirements

     Ramos/Müller          GT1    Maserati        72 laps
     Krumm/Turner          GT1    Nissan          61 laps
     Leinders/Kuppens      GT1    Ford            39 laps
     Garcia/Mullen         GT2    Ferrari         37 laps
     Lemeret/Lucchini      GT2    Ferrari         17 laps

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