Oreca double extend title lead

Championship at Donington Park today, claiming its seventh win of the season.
The victory has enabled Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger to move closer towards the Drivers Championship.

However, the first hour of the race saw the Lister, which started from pole, take a commanding lead.

Beretta, starting from fourth on the grid, moved up to second behind Julian Bailey, but admitted, 'Honestly, I could not overtake them.'

The Oreca Viper and the Lister Storm made their first pit stops together.

At this point, confusion took over as Bailey, moving into the space in front of the pits, caught an air hose which pulled over a fuel rig belonging to another team.

The team lost a lap before William Hewland, driving in the FIA GT Championship for the first time, got out onto the track.

He proceeded to drive a superb stint, regaining much of the lost time and handing the car over to Andy Wallace in third place.

Wallace inherited second place when the second Oreca Viper, driven by Justin Bell
and Jean-Philippe Belloc, retired with clutch problems.

He finally took the chequered flag 25 second behind the leading Viper.

Third place went to the Konrad Porsche, after a problem-filled weekend, which saw the line-up of Konrad and Maassen start from eighth on the grid.

Maassen drove an excellent first stint to get the car up to third place.

But, a problem with the air-jack prevented them changing their front tyres in the last changeover, and Maassen survived a final-lap spin due to the used tyres, finishing third.

The Chamberlain Vipers, which had qualified strongly, could not maintain their qualifying pace, and drove steady races to finish fifth and sixth, behind the GL PK Viper.

There was disappointment for Kaufmann and Ligonnet, who failed to maintain their 100 per cent points-scoring record, stopping after 61 laps with transmission failure in their brand new Freisinger Porsche 911 GT2.

'We hope for better luck in Homestead,' Kaufmann said.

The Championship now leaves Europe for two races in the USA and one in China.