Negrao and Ramos win at Nogaro
Xandi Negrao and Miguel Ramos claimed their first FIA GT Championship victory as a driver pairing after a quite brilliant performance from the Vitafone Maserati duo at Nogaro in France
After starting fifth and running there for most of the opening stint, Negrao handed over to co-driver Ramos, who began to hunt down the leading Phoenix Carsport Chevrolet Corvette of Marcel Fassler and Jean-Denis Deletraz.
Ramos had turned a 12-second deficit to Deletraz into almost nothing by the time they had handed the reigns over to Negrao and Marcel Fassler for the final stint, and Negrao then passed polesitter Fassler with a little over 20 minutes remaining to take a well-deserved win.
Fassler, the Larbre Saleen of Greg Franchi/Vincent Vosse and the Selleslagh Corvette of Christophe Bouchut/Xavier Maassen had disputed the lead early on, but poor pit work by the latter two crews put them out of contention.
In the end Fassler let teammate Fabrizio Gollin through to second in a bid to aid his title hopes and those of co-driver Mike Hezemans, who now trail series leaders Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini, who finished sixth, by just four points.
In GT2 the win went to Britain's Richard Westbrook and his Australian co-driver Alex Davison, who made his series debut with the Prospeed Porsche team.
Westbrook, who spent the final stint of the race fending off the attention of the CR Scuderia car of Tim Mullen (and even took a few touches from him too) passed the slowing Gianmaria Bruni on the final lap to take the class win in ninth overall.
Mullen and co-driver Andrea Piccini were second and Christian Montanari - who had spun Rob Bell's CR Scuderia car out of third with a minute left to run - was third along with his co-driver Thomas Biagi.
Montanari's AF Corse teammate Bruni crossed the line in fourth place - just seven tenths of a second behind Westbrook. The result was enough to give he and co-driver Toni Vilander the GT2 title.
Pos Class Driver Car Gap
01. GT1 Negrao/Ramos Maserati MC 12 1:59:45.063
02. GT1 Gollin/Hezemans Corvette Z06 + 5.003
03. GT1 Fassler/Deletraz Corvette Z06 + 14.036
04. GT1 Simonsen/Peter Aston Martin DB9 + 21.216
05. GT1 Wendlinger/Sharp Aston Martin DB9 + 43.491
06. GT1 Bertolini/Bartels Maserati MC 12 + 43.705
07. GT1 Franchi/Vosse Saleen S7 + 43.839
08. GT1 Bouchut/Maassen Corvette Z06 + 1:04.768
09. GT2 Westbrook/Davison Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) + 2 laps
10. GT2 Mullen/Piccini Ferrari F430 + 2 laps
11. GT2 Montanari/Biagi Ferrari F430 + 2 laps
12. GT2 Bruni/Vilander Ferrari F430 + 2 laps
13. GT2 Mediani/Moser Ferrari F430 + 2 laps
14. GT1 Tuero/Mazzacane Ferrari 550 Maranello + 2 laps
15. GT2 Babini/Davies Ferrari F430 + 3 laps
16. GT2 Malucelli/Ruberti Ferrari F430 + 3 laps
17. GT2 Bell/Kirkaldy Ferrari F430 + 3 laps
18. GT2 Russo/Perez Companc Ferrari F430 + 3 laps
19. GT2 Camathias/Balbiani Ferrari F430 + 4 laps
20. GT2 Mucke/Enge Aston Martin Vantage V8 + 4 laps
21. GT2 Williams/Ashburn Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) + 6 laps
Not classified
GT1 Kumpen/Longin Saleen S7 48 laps
GT1 Dayraut/Canal Corvette Z06 36 laps
GT2 Palttala/Forsten Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) 23 laps
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