Corvette wins as GT2 title clinched
The #6 Corvette C5-R took its second win of the FIA GT season at Zhuhai today, heating up the GT1 title battle with two rounds remaining
Bert Longin, Mike Hezemans and Anthony Kumpen steered the Corvette to its first win since Imola, beating the Larbre Ferrari 550 Maranello of Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel to the finish line by a mere 7.16 seconds.
The Maserati MC12 took third and fourth places, the pair of Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider taking the podium honours, some four seconds ahead of their teammates Fabio Babini and Thomas Biagi.
The third Maserati MC12, of Karl Wedlinger and Andrea Bertonili finished sixth, leaving the drivers in lead of the FIA GT Drivers' Championship standings with 66 points.
But the Chinese race result also means that seven drivers are now separated by just seven points in the GT1 title battle, with only four points separating leaders Wedlinger and Bertolini from second-placed Scheider and Bartels.
In GT2, Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller clinched the Drivers' Championship in China, after claiming a win in their class - and finishing seventh overall in the Porsche 996.
Today's race was not without controversy, however. Several cars fell victim to an oil spill from a broken Porsche engine and ended up in the gravel trap, but Larbre Competition Team Principal, Jack Leconte, was critical of the marshall's response to the event.
"The marshalling here was very bad," Leconte said. "There were no oil flags being shown and Pedro [Lamy] was helpless in the conditions, and ended up in the gravel. We were fortunate to be the first of the three cars to be towed out as it meant we got back on the track before the safety car."
CLASSIFIED: Pos Drivers Car Time 1. Kumpen/Longin/Hezemans Corvette C5R 3h 0:21.567 2. Lamy/Gardel Ferrari 550M + 7.160 3. Bartels/Scheider Maserati MC12 + 1:19.589 4. Babini/Biagi Maserati MC12 + 1:23.356 5. Piccini/Deletraz Ferrari 575M + 1 Lap 6. Bertolini/Wendlinger Maserati MC12 + 1 Lap 7. Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche 996 + 3 Laps 8. Sugden/Collard Porsche 996 + 4 Laps 9. Moccia/Passutti Porsche 996 + 6 Laps 10. Marsh/O'Young Porsche 996 + 7 Laps 11. Huisman/Kuus Spyker C8 + 8 Laps 12. Konopka/Rosina Porsche 996 + 10 Laps 13. Ickx/Leinders Vertigo Streiff + 13 Laps 14. Stokell/Ley Lotus Exige + 14 Laps 15. Casadei/Jurasz/Vonka Porsche 996 + 23 Laps NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Drivers Car On Lap Lacko/Stanco/Hermann Saleen S7 R 71 Keen/Halliday Lister Storm GT 57 Drudi/Lee/Pregliasco Ferrari 360M 33 Zani/Pillon/Pirri Maserati MC12 30 Bouchut/Fomenko/Vasiliev Aston Martin DBR9 12 Ruberti/Lechner/Konrad Saleen S7 R 8 Ried/Ried Porsche 996 3 Moro/Kaufmann Porsche 996 2
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