Negrao, Bernoldi win at Interlagos
Alexandre Negrao and Enrique Bernoldi won their home round the GT1 World Championship at Interlagos on Sunday
The Brazilians' Vitaphone Maserati had finished fourth in Saturday's qualification race, but by the end of the pit sequence in today's main event they had got up to second behind the Tomas Enge/Darren Turner Young Driver Aston Martin.
Negrao then put Turner under huge pressure before barging his way into the lead with 12 minutes remaining and edging away to win by 2.3 seconds.
Marc Hennerici and Alex Margaritis completed the podium in their Phoenix Corvette, just pipping the #10 Hexis Aston Martin of Clivio Piccione and Jonathan Hirschi.
Marc VDS' Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin brought the first of the Fords home in fifth, with Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck rounding out the top six in their Sumo Power Nissan, having lost ground in the pits after chasing Enge for the lead in the opening stint.
Championship leaders Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini were only ninth in the other Vitaphone Maserati, meaning that the title will be decided in the finale at San Luis, Argentina next week.
But Turner and Enge are now their only title rivals - and are 28 points behind with just 33 available at San Luis. Third was not enough to keep Hennerici in the fight, and Matech Ford driver Thomas Mutsch's hopes ended with a 14th place today.
Following their very early retirement on Saturday, Mutsch and team-mate Richard Westbrook had charged to the edge of the top 10 today, but then their car began to fade and after some extremely fraught racing Mutsch finally spun on the last lap while trying to fend off Christopher Haase in the #24 Reiter Lamborghini.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Bernoldi/Negrao Maserati 1h01m23.296s 2. Enge/Turner Aston Martin + 2.348s 3. Hennerici/Margaritis Corvette + 5.874s 4. Piccione/Hirschi Aston Martin + 6.077s 5. Martin/Leinders Ford + 9.060s 6. Dumbreck/Krumm Nissan + 10.574s 7. Schwager/Pastorelli Lamborghini + 11.367s 8. Jani/Armindo Ford + 22.358s 9. Bertolini/Bartels Maserati + 22.925s 10. Heger/Muller Maserati + 23.225s 11. Nygaard/Mucke Aston Martin + 31.682s 12. Kox/Haase Lamborghini + 43.720s 13. Makowiecki/Clairay Aston Martin + 45.738s 14. Westbrook/Mutsch Ford + 52.474s 15. Bobbi/Palttala Ford + 54.724s 16. Ara/Nilsson Nissan + 1m11.191s 17. Serra/Longo Maserati + 1m18.694s 18. Wendlinger/Moser Nissan + 1m34.780s 19. Huisman/Kuismanen Corvette + 1 lap Retirements: Jimenez/Dahruj Corvette 31 laps Campbell-Walter/Hughes Nissan 23 laps Zonta/Kechele Lamborghini 6 laps
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