Dominik Baumann (AUT) and Maximilian Buhk (DEU) in the No.101 Heico Gravity-Charouz Mercedes recorded an impressive lights-to-flag win in tricky conditions in Race One of the fifth round of the FIA GT3 European Championship at the Moscow Raceway. Second was the No.111 Rhino’s Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini of Hari Proczyk (AUT) and David Mengesdorf (DEU) ahead of Gaetano Ardagna Perez (VEN) and Giuseppe Ciro (ITA) in the No.151 AF Corse Ferrari.

The win tightened Baumann and Buhk’s grip on the drivers’ title. They moved to 154 points with Proczyk and Mengesdorf (127) leapfrogging Ardagna Perez and Ciro (125) for second place.

The FIA GT3 European Championship joined the grid for the FIA GT1 World Championship in Russia.

Starting from pole, Baumann displayed great prowess on a wet track and relished the chance to mix it with some of the GT1 cars. “It was quite a good experience to race with the GT1 guys. I had a lot of fun, it was not easy to maintain contact with them or just do my race. My target was to get a good gap to the rest of the GT3 guys which I did,” he said.

“Overall it was a great race, we had a great car for the conditions, thanks to the team.” Buhk added: “Conditions were quite tricky but overall I think we did a good job and the points are very good for our championship hopes.”

Proczyk and Mengesdorf carried a 15-second penalty following their Race Two victory in the previous round in Portugal, so the pair were pleased with second place at the end. “With the 15 seconds, I think second was the maximum we could achieve today. The result helps us in the championship for sure.”

Ardagna Perez believes that he and Ciro will mount a strong challenge for Race Two if the conditions remain wet. “Our car is good in the wet so we hope for rain for the second race;” he said.

Race Two starts at 15:15 local time today.

Source : SRO