FIA GT season review: A seven-way classic

The statistic of seven different winning crews, representing four manufacturers, from the ten races goes to show just how open this year's FIA GT Championship was.

Vitaphone Maserati team boss Michael Bartels and lead driver Andrea Bertolini took their second title, but only won two races as the glory was shared around most of the class.

Their Spa 24 Hours victory was dominant as their rivals fell apart, and the win at Zolder later in the year was solid, but it was their consistency throughout the season that made the difference in the end.

The close second places at Silverstone and Adria proved just as important as the victories, as was the fact that theirs was the only car to finish every race - all of them in the top six too.

Bertolini and Bartels were both quick enough to get the job done when the situation called for a particularly brisk stint, but neither was spectacular. This played to their advantage, with no major spins, crashes or errors of any kind all year long.

The No.2 Vitaphone entry played a good supporting role and even upstaged the lead car on occasion. Former GP2 racer Xandi Negrao took to sportscar racing quickly and he was in the thick of the action from the off at Silverstone, until co-driver Miguel Ramos pranged it into Jean-Denis Deletraz's Corvette later in the race.

Mike Hezemans, Marcel Fassler, and Jean-Denis Deletraz Phoenix Corvette Z06 during the 24 hours of Spa © XPB

But Negrao had a strong rookie season, and Ramos was among the best of the so-called amateur drivers. Their second place in the Spa 24 Hours and victory at Nogaro were richly deserved rewards for the progress made by each.

Of the challengers to Vitaphone, Fabrizio Gollin and Mike Hezemans came closest in the No.6 Phoenix Corvette, though they only had a single victory. That came at Oschersleben, where a penalty for Bartels and Bertolini gave them the lead going into the final stint.

The pace of probably the most evenly-matched driver pairing kept the car in the hunt, but Gollin regularly had to charge back following one misfortune or another, and to settle for points rather than victories.

The pair finished the season with a string of second places, which pulled them clear of the rest of the pack, but it wasn't enough to close down Bartels and Bertolini.

In the sister Corvette, Marcel Fassler was tremendously quick but held back on occasion by his teammate. The accidents that removed the No.5 car from contention in the first two races of the year, at Silverstone and Monza, weren't entirely Deletraz's fault, but were no less frustrating for Fassler, sitting on the pit wall after handing the car over in a strong position.

Deletraz performed well under pressure to seal victory at Bucharest though, and the car was in the top three consistently enough to be in the hunt at the front. But, ultimately, Fassler didn't quite have the support he needed to make a title charge in the last four races.

The quickest package of year was not a Maserati or a Corvette, but the No.33 Jetalliance Aston Martin of Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp. They won more races than anyone else, but it was win or bust, and it was the latter far too often.

Sharp won the team the first race of the year, charging in the wet at Silverstone to snatch a late victory following Wendlinger's spin early on. They dominated at Oschersleben to lead a 1-2 for the team and were comfortable out front at Brno, while the battle for second raged between three Corvettes behind.

But the successes were truncated by letdowns. A car failure launched Wendlinger into a big crash in the Spa 24 Hours, and another retirement at Adria and a delayed seventh at Monza broke their title hopes. The team pulled out of Bucharest at the last minute and didn't make the trip to San Luis, so the car was left further down the championship table than it should have been.

Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9 racing at Brno © XPB

The second Jetalliance car made a few spirited cameos, but was never really in play. The second place, behind the sister car, at Oschersleben was the only good result, but Alex Muller's form was one of the highlights of the season.

The Monza race summed up their season perfectly in just a couple of hours. Muller had qualified on pole, stormed off into the lead and handed the car over to teammate (and team boss) Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer, who promptly collided with Deletraz and retired.

Later in the year, Muller was partnered with Jiri Janak for the Nogaro round, but he didn't even get to drive the car because Janak crashed in practice and destroyed it. All Muller can do is wait for his opportunity for a full season with a good teammate.

Outside the top three teams, the Selleslagh Racing Corvette and the Gigawave Aston joined the fight for victories and could easily have kept Vitaphone, Phoenix and Jetalliance out of the winner's circle for the first two rounds of the year.

An inspired tyre call from the Gigawave pit wall, and some brilliant driving by Allan Simonsen, very nearly earned them a maiden victory in the Silverstone opener. It was only a badly-timed safety car that cost the intermediate-shod Aston the victory.

Then the Selleslagh car took a comfortable victory in round two at Monza. Christophe Bouchut had to play second fiddle to Muller in the opening stages but, after the driver changes, co-driver Xavier Maassen was left well clear of the Negrao/Ramos Maserati at the front.

Neither car was to come so close to victory again, but they were still a constant threat to the established frontrunners. The Selleslagh car could have caused an upset in the Spa 24 Hours, but accidents earlier in the weekend - including Bouchut's massive crash in night qualifying - left the team dangerously low on spare parts. The car ran at the front in the first hour but, when a brake problem sent Maassen into the wall at La Source, the team didn't have enough fresh bodywork panels to patch it up again.

A strong third in the 24 Hours was the pick of the remainder of the season for the Gigawave car, but Simonsen and Philipp Peter drove well all year long.

The Peka Racing Saleen of Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin scored an unexpected end-of-season victory at San Luis, and the Larbre Saleen had its own quick flash on the radar when Pedro Lamy turned up and put it on pole for the Spa 24 Hours. Unfortunately, co-driver Steve Zacchia had an almighty shunt at Eau Rouge in the morning warm-up and the destroyed car didn't even start the race.

Toni Vilander & Gianmaria Bruni AF Corse Ferrari 430 at Silverstone © XPB

GT2

The pre-season hype, or hope, surrounding the GT2 class failed to produce as tight a battle as was anticipated.

Gianmaria Bruni's brilliance behind the wheel of the Ferrari 430 helped to elevate him and AF Corse teammate Toni Vilander well clear of the opposition, and it never even looked like being a close contest. They won five of the ten races and had the title all but wrapped up by half-distance.

Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti were best of the rest in the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari, but only won one race and were nowhere near consistent enough to provide a challenge.

Rob Bell and Andrew Kirkaldy were often quick enough in the lead CR Scuderia car, but too many retirements crippled their season. Winning both races in the double-header at Bucharest was the only real high.

Christian Montanari and Thomas Biagi had the consistency in their AF Corse entry, but rarely had the pace to match Bruni and Vilander and were the only front running GT2 line-up not to take a single race victory.

The Porsche assault was carried entirely by Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard as the only non-Ferrari in the top ten. Fighting victories at Monza and Nogaro (where Alex Davison substituted for Collard) were a highlight for the Prospeed-run car, but exclusions from two of the first three races stunted their season before it really got going.