The first chicane was crowded
Race 1
Ford GT wins at Monza - stewards exclude Marc Sourd Corvette
Three races, three victories for the Ford GT
Reigning British GT champions Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis have been reunited this year, to race the No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT in the FIA GT3 European Championship. They avoided the mayhem in the early laps of the first race at Monza, and managed to outpace their rivals, to take victory; they took the lead of the race with nine laps remaining and then eased off to the chequered flag.
They led home the No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06.R GT3 of Johan Charpilienne and Marc Sourd – however, in a dramatic development hours after the race, the Corvette was excluded, and second place was awarded to the No.47 Tech 9 Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Christopher Haase and Dimitris Deverikos. In the revised results, the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette of Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier was placed third.
Incidents in opening laps take out top cars
At the start the track was no more than damp – but the difficult conditions were emphasised when the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette spun on the green flag lap, while behind the safety car. Once the race got under way the No.28 Marc Sourd Corvette and the No.36 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of David Loix and Stéphane Lemeret quickly pulled away from the chasing pack. On lap 2 the No.19 Matech GT Racing Ford GT spun out of a top-six position at the first Lesmo curve, while two other cars also spun.
Charpilienne, in the Corvette, then started to open a lead as the Porsche fell back to the chasing pack – led by the No.21 Ford GT, and then the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT. By lap 8 the two Fords were nose to tail behind the No.36 Porsche, and Loix was obviously on the limit, coming close to cutting both first and second chicanes. Coming out of the Ascari chicane Ian Khan, in the No.20 Ford, made a bold move around the outside of the two cars ahead. It almost worked – but he ran slightly too wide, bouncing back across the track and taking the Porsche hard into the barriers. Loix was out on the spot; Khan limped down towards Parabolica before pulling off.
That brought out the safety car, to allow the two cars to be removed; that removed the handy lead the No.28 Corvette had established over the No.21 Ford GT, with the No.47 Tech 9 Lamborghini was third. The safety car stayed out for two laps – and came in just as the pit-stop window opened, which saw fourteen cars head into the pits. Both the No.21 and No.47 cars came in, along with the No.43 La Torre Motorsport Dodge Viper Competition Coupe of Lunardi and reigning champion Vannelet; unfortunately the Dodge was overheating, and the car didn’t go out again.
Ford GT powers to victory after pit-stops
The cars at the head of the field stayed out another five laps, and came in just before the pit-stop window closed. Marc Sourd, taking over the wheel of the No.28 Corvette, came out in the lead – but Bradley Ellis had had five laps to get up to speed, and quickly closed right up. He tracked the Corvette for two laps, then pulled alongside as the two headed down the main straight at the end of lap 20; as they crossed the finish line, the gap between the two was given as 0.000sec! The Ford took the lead into the first chicane, and then eased away; Ellis controlled the gap to the end of the race.
Behind the Corvette, the No.47 Tech 9 Lamborghini was falling away, allowing the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette of Peyroles and Ruffier to close to within 0.12sec at the finish; the No.29 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Lesoudier and Scheier took a remarkable fifth, having started at the back of the pack from the pit-lane. Sixth went to the No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Mena and Accary, while the No.22 Matech Mustang Racing Ford Mustang FR500 GT of De Doncker and Maxwell took a fine seventh, having qualified 24th. The first Ferrari F430 GT3 home was the No.12 JMB Racing entry of Rambeaud and Misslin, while the No.44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Greenhalgh and Thiry was 12th overall. With the demise of the No.36 Prospeed car, the first Porsche to take the chequered flag was the No.39 Mühlner Motorsport car of Thomas and Jirik, just ahead of the sole Jaguar XKR in the race, the No.33 Bellm/Hall car.
However, more than four hours after the race finished, the stewards decided that the No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette should be excluded from the results – the car had raced on the tyres which were marked for Sunday’s race. That decision moved everyone up by one position. It had no effect on the standings in the Drivers’ Championship; Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch still lead after their double victory at Silverstone; Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier move up to second, ahead of David Loix and Mikael Forsten. Bradley Ellis is now fourth in the points table.
“Going out on slicks in damp conditions at the start was interesting, but the car was fantastic,” said Mortimer. I caught the Porsche, which was in second place, but then the safety car came out, and I handed the car over to Bradley.” Ellis downplayed his role in the victory. “I managed to catch the Corvette as he left the pits – after that, I sat behind him to pick the right spot to overtake,” he explained. “Once I was past, I controlled the gap – if he got closer, I speeded up a bit. This is a great start to partnering with Alex in the FIA GT3 European Championship.”
The race was painful to some
Race 2
Dodge Viper finishes first, but Ford GT claims victory
Four wins from four – the Ford GT thunders on
Once again the weather played an important part in the result of a race, as the fourth round of the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship took place on a Monza circuit which was damp, then drying, and then wet. But the race result was decided not on the track, but in the office of the stewards, as post-race penalties demoted the first two cars to take the chequered flag. That handed the race win to the No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis, with second place going to the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3 of James Ruffier and Arnaud Peyroles, with the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of championship leaders Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch being demoted from second to third.
Wet track and pit-stops the key to the race
Before the race got under way it was bad news for the No.20 Ford GT, when the stewards decided to move them back five places from the pole position they had taken in qualifying, as a penalty for their part in the crash in the previous day’s race which had also eliminated the No.36 Porsche.
No rain was falling when the race got under way, although the track was so wet that full wet tyres were the only option. The No.11 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Lorgere-Roux and Petit led away from pole; they were briefly headed by the No.21 Ford GT, but quickly regained the lead. The Ferrari then pulled out a lead which stretched to almost five seconds; behind them Ellis had let team-mate Mutsch through into second. In only three laps, Mutsch had reduced the gap to nothing; on lap 7, right in the wheeltracks of the Ferrari through the Ascari chicane, he took the lead on the run to Parabolica. On the exit of Parabolica Ellis also got past the Ferrari. On the next lap, the No43 La Torre Motorsport Dodge Viper Competition Coupe of Lunardi and Vannelet made it up into third.
The pit-stop window opened after 23 minutes of the hour-long race, but most cars stayed out longer. The No.21 Ford was the first of the leaders to pit, with Ellis handing over to Mortimer just after the halfway point of the race. With the track drying, a switch to slicks might have been considered – but just then, rain started to fall on parts of the circuit.
On lap 17, six of the top ten cars pitted – but, crucially, the No.20 and No.19 Fords and the No.43 Dodge stayed out for an extra lap. That meant that by the time they had made their mandatory driver-change stops, the pit-lane window had closed, with 23 minutes remaining, by the time they left the pit-lane. The penalty for this is a stop-go pit-stop, with the stop being the length by which the window was missed; for the No.43, this was 47sec, and the No.20 was handed a 33sec stop-go.
Dodge Viper takes chequered flag, but Ford GT wins the race
Ignoring the penalties, the No.20 Ford now led the race, with the No.43 Dodge in second and the No21. Ford third. Gilles Vannelet, in the Viper, was able to close the gap on the car ahead; at the start of lap 24, he moved to the inside going into the first chicane and went through.
From there the top three stayed the same to the finish, less than five seconds apart. Since the penalties had been notified in the last five laps of the race, the teams did not need to stop; instead, the stewards added the penalties, plus 30 seconds, to their overall race time. That dropped the No.43 Dodge to fifth and the No.20 Ford to third, promoting the No.21 Ford GT into first place and the No.1 Corvette to second.
The revised results overshadowed what had been a fine race; there were battles throughout the field. Compared to the previous race there were very few incidents, with no major accidents. The No.10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Haase and Deverikos was fourth, a good result from eleventh on the grid – but the No.5 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Balbiani and Tonoli did even better, going from 28th to 6th. The No.6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of Ashburn and Williams was seventh, just ahead of the No.44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Thiry and Greenhalgh. The No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Kraihamer and Knauss was seventeenth, one place ahead of the No.22 Matech Mustang Racing Ford Mustang FR500 GT of Maxwell and De Doncker. The No.30 Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Laffite and O’Neill was 26th, while the sole Jaguar XKR in the race, the No.33 APEX Motorsport car, pulled off soon after Bellm handed the car over to Hall.
The result means Khan and Mutsch continue to lead the championship, although their lead is down to only two points, ahead of Ruffier and Peyroles. Bradley Ellis is third, two points further back, with Alex Mortimer in fourth. The next races in the series are at Oschersleben,in Germany, on 5th and 6th July; the last time the FIA GT3 European Championship visited the circuit in 2006, the first race saw a Dodge Viper 1-2 finish while the top two spots in the second race went to Aston Martin.