Grosjean/Mutsch triumph at Brno
Matech Ford GT drivers Romain Grosjean and Thomas Mutsch took their second GT1 World Championship win of the season in a chaotic race at Brno this afternoon
Grosjean started sixth and fell further down the field at the start. He fought back and was fourth when the pit window opened during the second safety car period of the race.
The Matech team got Mutsch out ahead of the Michael Krumm/Peter Dumbreck Sumo Power Nissan, the Nicky Pastorelli/Dominik Schwager Munnich Lamborghini Murcielago and the Enrique Bernoldi/Miguel Ramos Vitaphone Maserati MC12 that had been in front of Grosjean before the stops. Indeed, with most of the cars pitting on that lap, several cars were delayed in the packed pitlane.
That meant that Darren Turner rejoined second, after taking the Young Driver Aston Martin DBR9 over from Tomas Enge. Confusion at the start had caused the Czech star to drop to 16th from his front row start, but the safety car stops brought the car back into contention.
Dumbreck came out just behind Turner and the top three circulated together for the rest of the race, but no one was able to make a pass.
Busy doing lots of passing was Michael Bartels. Co-driver Andrea Bertolini had started the race from pole in the Vitaphone Maserati and looked in charge at first. That was until a drivethrough penalty for an overly eager start dropped the car down the field.
Bartels showed the pace of the MC12 by being the fastest man on-track in the closing stages, storming back to fifth and finishing on the bootlid of the Jonathan Hirschi/Clivio Piccione Hexis Aston in fourth. The top five were covered by just 1.759 seconds.
The result gives the points lead back to Grosjean and Mutsch after they lost it to Bartles/Bertolini yesterday.
Pos Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Grosjean/Mutsch Matech Ford 1h00m46.852s 2. Enge/Turner Young Driver Aston + 0.710s 3. Krumm/Dumbreck Sumo Power Nissan + 0.959s 4. Hirschi/Piccione Hexis Aston + 1.546s 5. Bertolini/Bartels Vitaphone Maserati + 1.759s 6. Bernoldi/Ramos Vitaphone Maserati + 9.050s 7. Pastorelli/Schwager Munnich Lamborghini + 13.278s 8. Rosina/Hennerici Phoenix Corvette + 16.706s 9. Makowiecki/Sarrazin Hexis Aston + 20.867s 10. Wendlinger/Moser Swiss Nissan + 22.655s 11. Bobbi/Longin Triple H Maserati + 25.669s 12. Salo/Kuismanen Mad-Croc Corvette + 1m06.888s 13. Basseng/Jager Munnich Lamborghini + 1m11.549s 14. Maassen/Hezemans Phoenix Corvette + 1m12.360s 15. Ara/Nilsson Swiss Nissan + 1m22.324s 16. Palttala/Kuppens Marc VDS Ford + 1m29.546s 17. Hughes/Campbell-Walter Sumo Power Nissan + 1 lap 18. Frey/Allemann Matech Ford + 1 lap Retirements: Kechele/Danis Reiter Lamborghini 20 laps Mucke/Nygaard Young Driver Aston 12 laps Margaritis/Heger Triple H Maserati 8 laps Leinders/Martin Marc VDS Ford 8 laps
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