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Jet Alliance finally found their race form and took a 1-2

Austrian team Jetalliance claimed its first one-two at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, when 32,000 spectators over the weekend saw the team close out the front row of the grid on Saturday, then confirming the performance of their two Aston Martin DBR9 cars by crossing the line in first and second in Sunday’s two-hour race. Phoenix Racing’s Corvette finished third, ahead of the two Vitaphone Maserati MC 12s, allowing Bartels and Bertolini to pull out a two-point lead in the Drivers classification.

In GT2, AF Corse put in another dominant performance. Despite carrying the maximum penalty weight, Bruni and Vilander took their third win of the season, their Ferrari 430 GT2 crossing the line ahead of their team-mates Biagi and Montanari. Third position went to CR Scuderia, with their Ferrari driven by Rob Bell and Andrew Kirkaldy.

The FIA GT Championship will be back in Oschersleben next year, when it will celebrate its tenth year of racing at the German circuit.

DOUBLE WIN FOR JETALLIANCE
Karl Wendlinger and Ryan Sharp are no strangers to the top step of the FIA GT podium, the duo having claimed three victories last year, and a further win in the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy at Silverstone in May. However, this victory was very special for the Austrian team, as it was their first one-two, in both qualifying and then the race. Alex Müller took the lead at the start, when Bouchut getting ahead of pole-setter Wendlinger. Müller proceeded to lead until his pit stop, when Sharp took the commands of the race, pulling out a healthy lead. The second round of pit stops had just started when the safety car was called out to allow for some debris to be collected. This closed up the field for a frantic dash for the last 12 laps.

The top seven were then within ten seconds. Müller overtook the nr 6 Corvette for second, and the two cars continued to take a fine one-two. This was not only Wendlinger’s 14th FIA GT win, but team owner Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer’s first FIA GT podium – after just four years of competitive racing.

VITAPHONE KEEPS THE LEAD
The Oschersleben results have kept the GT1 classifications extremely close. Swiss duo Deletraz and Fässler put in a fine performance today to claim their second consecutive podium, followed by the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 cars. Negrao and Ramos put in a fine performance to recover from their five-place grid penalty from Adria to finish fourth. Bertolini and Bartels lost out under the safety car, followed by a spin while trying to overtake Fässler for third, meaning that the nr 1 car finished fifth. However, the four points scored means that the crew of the nr 1 car is now in sole command of the GT1 Drivers classification, with a two point lead over Wendlinger/Sharp, Bouchut/Maassen and Hezemans/Gollin, all of whom have 22 points. In the Teams points, Vitaphone leads by four points ahead of Phoenix Racing and six ahead of Jetalliance – an extremely close battle between three teams each with two cars able to claim podiums and wins.

Adria winners Gollin and Hezemans were unlucky to finish sixth today after a late race spin; their speed was obvious, as witnessed by Hezemans’ fastest lap, set on lap 32. Monza winners Bouchut and Maassen were seventh, after two drive-through penalties for pit lane speeding. Larbre Competition took the final point for Franchi and Vosse, in the Saleen S7R.

AF Corse contines to be the ones to beat in GT2

AF CORSE DO THE DOUBLE – AGAIN !
Bruni and Vilander are definitely the crew to beat in the GT2 category of the FIA GT Championship. From four races, the AF Corse duo have notched up three wins and a second place, giving them an 11 point win over their nearest rivals and team-mates, Biagi and Montanari. The nr 50 Ferrari 430 GT2 led from pole; only the pit stops allowed other cars to briefly take the lead.

As the car was already carrying the maximum penalty weight of 50 kg, this win takes them up to the ‘superweight’ category of 75 kg. However, as the next round is Spa, where no penalty weight is carried, they will have a reprieve – but the weight could be quite painful on the Bucharest city track.

The crew of the nr 51 car, racing in GT2 for their first season, claimed their second successive second place, but have been unable to catch their team-mates. As for third place, CR Scuderia were delighted to put some of their recent bad luck behind them and celebrate their first podium since Silverstone. “This is a brilliant result for the team,” said Niarchos. “I think we got rid of a few cobwebs and demons today. Rob and Andrew got a well-deserved third place, Tim set the fastest GT2 lap and my middle stint was the best I have driven for a couple of years. I think this is a great platform to take us into Spa. We are going straight there now for the test on Tuesday and are all greatly looking forward to the 24 hour race in a few week’s time.”

The nr 61 Prospeed Competition Porsche was fourth, ahead of the nr 78 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari of Camathias and Rigon. Advanced Engineering Pecom Racing Team was sixth with Russo and Perez-Companc, while Kessel Racing claimed its best finish to date with 7th. Ruberti and Malucelli took the final point in the nr 77 BMS car.

In terms of the points, the crew of the nr 77 BMS car are the nearest rivals to the AF Corse crews, but they are still ten points adrift. Bell and Kirkaldy are fourth, one point ahead of Collard and Westbrook. The GT2 points remain provisional pending the Prospeed appeal against their exclusion from the Adria round.

In the Teams classification, AF Corse has a 25 point lead over BMS Scuderia Italia, with CR Scuderia third, one point ahead of Prospeed Competition.

NEXT STOP : SPA
Preparations are already underway for the summer highlight of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, with a number of teams and drivers heading for the Belgian circuit on Tuesday July 8th for the traditional day of testing. With double points on offer during the epic 24-hour race, which will take place on August 2nd – 3rd, a good performance in Spa is a key element in any team’s Championship plans. A number of teams are still to announce their line-up for Spa – watch the website for the latest news !

QUOTES

GT1
1st
nr 33 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9
Karl Wendlinger : “I had pole, but I fell down to third place after the start. It was a bit tight in the first corner. I had to push hard for the whole first stint, but the car was very consistent. I managed to pass Bouchut near the end of my stint. Then I passed it over to Ryan who did a very good stint and we had a very good lead. Unfortunately, the pace car took away all the lead we had, so I had to push until the end of the race, because Alex was close behind, so I couldn’t relax. The traffic was okay. The GT2 cars were fighting for a win, they also have a lot of professional drivers who often look behind them to see if we’re coming, which is very nice of them. Sometimes we get blocked, but it happens to everybody. I want to congratulate and thank the team for this race, it’s great to get one-two like this, and thanks very much to all of our suppliers.”

Ryan Sharp : « I think that the team, after Adria, have worked harder than they have in these last two years to come back to have two cars finish the race, and the one-two is fantastic for everybody involved. It’s given us a real boost before going off to Spa. I think that if we can keep up our form there then we’ve got a chance. Obviously Spa’s all about the weather, and being reliable. But with the driver line up we’ve got, I think we’ll be strong. It’s fantastic that we finished Oschersleben like this, with all four of us standing there on the podium with the team manager, there’s no better way to end the weekend.”

2nd nr 36 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9
Alex Müller : « had a good start. Yesterday in the qualifying we had some brake problems, which the guys worked on all night to sort out. The car was very good. I took the lead, the pace was there. Then I handed it over to Lukas and he did a great job. He always says that he’s a gentleman driver, but that’s over now; he’s a semi-pro. He did an awesome job, thanks buddy! Thanks to the team as well, for a great 1-2 finish. After the Adria race, where neither car finished, the mechanics have done a really good job getting us back up to scratch.”

Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer : “What can I say, this first podium is a dream come true for me. We started this team three years ago, and I’ve only been in Motorsport for four years. It’s been a fantastic race. Standing next to these three professional drivers is a dream. The car was perfect with all the problems we’ve had lately. We’ve been getting close to victory in the last few races already, but we were lacking the luck. Today we had it. It’s a dream. Thank you to everyone involved. “

3rd Phoenix Racing Corvette
Jean-Denis Deletraz : “We were a little bit lucky to be on the podium at the end, because the race was really hard for us. The car’s set up wasn’t perfect and we had a huge under-steering, and we destroyed the front tyres at the beginning of the race at the beginning of my stint. But after a really bad start to the season, being on the podium twice, and especially before Spa, is a big help for us, a big motivation. Our main objective now is to try and win Spa. We’ve got the same line-up as last year for Spa, which I think will make a strong enough team to fight against Jetalliance and Vitaphone. “

Marcel Fässler : “At the end of the race, my tyres were really bad. We had changed them quite early on, and so I ended up being on this set of tyres for about 55 laps, which meant that by the end they had absolutely no grip left. It was difficult after the Safety car as well, because I tried to overtake a GT2 car, and he didn’t see me in the mirror maybe, and I hit him. I was afraid that that would break my car, but then my luck turned around. In the end, after the big mistake I made in the qualifying yesterday, when I broke my front splitter in my first flying lap, I’m really happy that my mechanics were so good which got us up to third.”

BMS Scuderia Italia ran in the mid field

GT2

1st nr 50 AF Corse Ferrari F430
Toni Vilander : “The race was okay. We’ve had a good pace the whole weekend. Normally the safety car takes over the GT1 leader, but here it came out in front of Westbrook and restarted the race like that, which made us run into trouble with the GT2 cars; the lapped cars don’t give us the space, and so we end up battling with those cars, and they hit our car, and it’s quite strange. Otherwise I had a clear stint; I had a good run in the traffic, I didn’t have any at all until the last three laps of my stint where I had the GT1 cars lapping me. The car handled really well and we had an aggressive strategy for the race. It worked well to get us our third win of the year. Gimmi is also in top form and did a wonderful qualifying.”

Gianmaria Bruni : “The first stint was very good. I had a very clear lap all through my stint. The car handled very well. During the last stint, after 4 or 5 laps after I had just got back in the car, the safety car came out. When we got going again, I was following Mullen, who was a lap down on me, until he got a drive-through penalty. And then I got stuck behind Westbrook. But in the end, we still managed to bring the car home and give AF Corse a 1-2 victory.”

2nd
Thomas Biagi :”Things are going quite well. Not as well as I’d like because I prefer to win, so I’m still looking forward to winning a race in GT2. Still, things are going well because I’ve done 5 races here before, getting 1st three times, and 2nd twice, so my average is quite good. I’m happy, because me and Christian are learning more every race, we are improving, we are learning, we’re going in the right direction towards a win in the future. I’m happy about the handling of the car, the work we did together and the handling of the Michelin tyres.”

Christian Montanari : “The race today was good, a funny race after the safety car came out. I tried to push a lot because I saw Gimmi in front of me and I pushed hard in the last five laps. Anyway, we did a good job today, the car worked well, the team too. I think that Thomas and I were quite fast, but once more, Toni and Gimmi are better. Spa, it’s another race, but an important one, longer. It’s good for me and Thomas, because I remember last year that we did a good job and we were very fast. We’ll see in a month.”

3rd
Rob Bell : “It’s been a tough weekend in many ways, and I think to come back and get on the podium is a testament to the guys. They’ve done a great job, with a few late nights because of incidents in testing, so the podium’s for the guys really. We had a car that was well balanced in the race, we clearly had a different strategy to the AF Corse team, and hats off to them; they got 1-2 again and we’ve obviously got a bit of catching up to do. As a race, we need to focus as much on GT2 as we do on GT1.”

Andrew Kirkaldy : “The race was fairly straightforward for me. As Rob said, we had a different strategy to AF Corse and we chose to go on harder tyres because we’d had an accident in the testing and weren’t sure we’d make the qualifying. So we had to go for a tyre on which we could hopefully run on for the whole race. As it transpired, we couldn’t do that. We struggled a bit with the tyres and were a little bit slow in the middle. The safety car didn’t really work for us. We were second and ended up third, but after the difficult weekend in Adria where we were going well and ended up with a failure, to finish on the podium is great. I’m sure the team is really happy, because they’ve worked really hard all weekend and it’s a testament to them to get the car back out and ready for the race.”

RESULT

Pos	Car	Class	Drivers	Car	Laps	Gap
1	33	GT1	Wendlinger, Sharp	Aston Martin DB9	79	145.01
2	36	GT1	Muller, Lichtner-Hoyer	Aston Martin DB9	79	1.518
3	5	GT1	Fassler, Deletraz	Corvette Z06	79	27.742
4	2	GT1	Ramos, Negrao	Maserati MC 12	79	27.879
5	1	GT1	Bartels, Bertolini	Maserati MC 12	79	38.836
6	6	GT1	Gollin, Hezemans	Corvette Z06	79	47.464
7	3	GT1	Bouchut, Maassen	Corvette Z06	79	01:27.3
8	7	GT1	Franchi, Vosse	Saleen S7	78	1 lap
9	15	GT1	Aucott, Ferte	Maserati MC 12	78	1 lap
10	4	GT1	Longin, Kumpen	Saleen S7	78	1 lap
11	50	GT2	Bruni, Vilander	Ferrari F430	77	2 laps
12	51	GT2	Montanari, Biagi	Ferrari F430	77	2 laps
13	56	GT2	Bell, Kirkaldy	Ferrari F430	77	2 laps
14	61	GT2	Westbrook, Collard	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	76	3 laps
15	78	GT2	Rigon, Camathias	Ferrari F430	76	3 laps
16	95	GT2	Russo, Perez Companc	Ferrari F430	76	3 laps
17	57	GT2	Del Monte, Moser	Ferrari F430	76	3 laps
18	77	GT2	Ruberti, Malucelli	Ferrari F430	76	3 laps
19	60	GT2	Forsten, Palttala	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	76	3 laps
20	62	GT2	Davies, Babini	Ferrari F430	75	4 laps
21	55	GT2	Mullen, Niarchos	Ferrari F430	73	6 laps
22	59	GT2	Williams, Ashburn	Porsche 911 GT3 RS	70	9 laps
23	104	G2	Heyer, Vojtech	Mosler MT 900	67	12 laps
24	37	GT1	Lopez, Basso	Ferrari 550 Maranello	60	19 laps
25	103	G2	Jirasek, Lacko	Mosler MT 900	13	66 laps
26	12	GT1	Kaufmann, Talkanitsa	Corvette C5-R	8	71 laps