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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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