Marc VDS takes first GT1 victory

The Ford GT driven Frederic Makowiecki and Maxime Martin just edged out the best of the four Nissans, the JR Motorsports entry shared by Richard Westbrook and Peter Dumbreck. Third place went to the second JR Nissan of Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr.

Makowiecki ran second behind Darren Turner in the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin for the first half of the race. The Ford emerged from the mandatory mid-race pitstops ahead of the Aston (which then slowed with a loose wheel) and just behind Dumbreck. The Nissan went wide at Turn 4, allowing Martin to take a lead he would hold to the end of the one-hour race.

Martin said: "Fred did a good job in the opening stint and then I had a good fight with Peter. The victory is good for the whole team, because last year was not so easy for us."

Luhr overcame Enrique Bernoldi's Sumo Power Nissan to claim the final podium spot. Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp's Hexis Aston finished fifth on the back of a super-fast pitstop.

Young Driver's Tomas Enge triggered a first-corner accident when he missed his braking point, touched Makowiecki and spun. He was tagged by Dominik Schwager's All-Inkl Lamborghini and was then hit square-on by the DKR Engineering Chevrolet Corvette driven by Jaime Camara.

Qualifying race results - 31 laps:

Pos  Drivers                  Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Martin/Makowiecki        Marc VDS Ford         1h00m11.256s
 2.  Dumbreck/Westbrook       JR Nissan                 + 1.476s
 3.  Luhr/Krumm               JR Nissan                + 18.069s
 4.  Bernoldi/Zonta           Sumo Power Nissan        + 21.514s
 5.  Piccione/Dusseldorp      Hexis Aston Martin       + 22.460s
 6.  Winkelhock/Basseng       All-Inkl Lamborghini     + 23.049s
 7.  Hezemans/Catsburg        Exim Corvette            + 37.828s
 8.  Brabham/Campbell-Walter  Sumo Power Nissan        + 43.637s
 9.  Hohenadel/Piccini        Hexis Aston Martin       + 48.575s
10.  Wendlinger/Kox           Swiss Lamborghini        + 49.454s
11.  Hennerici/Leinders       Marc VDS Ford            + 55.779s
12.  Matzke/Pavlovic          Belgian Ford           + 1m07.877s
13.  Nilsson/Janak            Swiss Lamborghini      + 1m08.866s
14.  Leclerc/Giroix           Belgian Ford           + 1m49.703s

Retirements:

     Mucke/Turner             Young Driver Aston         15 laps
     Muller/Enge              Young Driver Aston           1 lap
     Schwager/Pastorelli      All-Inkl Lamborghini        0 laps
     Camara/Rossi             DKR Corvette                0 laps