The FIA GT3 European Championships’ first visit to the brand new Autódromo Internacional Algarve was dominated by the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies with a double win in the two 60-minute races.
Race 1
Walter Salles claimed his maiden pole position in Saturday qualifying and the Matech GT Racing Ford GT lined up at the head of the 28 car grid for Round 7 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship. The Brazilian got a good start to lead into turn 1 ahead of Thomas Accary in the Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 and Christopher Mies in the Phoenix Racing Audi. It took two laps for Accary to find a way past Salles and was quickly followed by Mies a lap later as the Ford suffered problems with engine power.
Further back down the grid Luca Pirri, who had started at the back of the grid in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette was making rapid progress through the field and up to 11th place by lap 8. Danny van Dongen in the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari had kept pace with the leaders and demoted Salles to 4th place while Accary and Mies continued to battle for the lead.
Mies pitted on lap 14 to hand over to Christopher Haase while Accary continued to circulate until lap 19. Disaster struck the championship leading car when the engine failed to fire up after Julen Rodrigues had been strapped in. The Aston refused to start for three laps and that meant their race was destroyed.
Haase held a comfortable 20 second lead over Phil Quaife, now at the wheel of the CRS Ferrari, who was under pressure from Stefano Gattuso in the Kessel Racing Ferrari. An engine problem eliminated this threat, only to be replaced by the charging Fischer Racing Ford GT of Florian Gruber. On lap 23 Gruber passed Thomas Mutsch in the #1 Matech GT Racing Ford and then two laps later passed Quaife. Meanwhile Diego Alessi in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette was in 6th place, also passing the Ford GT as Mutsch struggled with limited engine power due to the throttle sticking at 90%. On lap 29 the Corvette passed both the Ford and the Audi of Cesar Campanico to move into the final podium place.
Christopher Haase crossed the line to take the chequered flag on lap 33 to record the first FIA GT3 win for Audi, over 24 seconds ahead of Florian Gruber and 27 seconds ahead of Diego Alessi.
Race 2
Christian Mamerow had scored his first pole position in the championship – the first for a Viper since 2006 – with the fastest time of the day in Saturday qualifying. The Fischer Racing Ford GT was missing from the starting grid due to engine failure, while the #30 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini was also absent following an accident in race 1.
At the start Mamerow immediately came under pressure from the Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Frederic Makowiecki. Diego Alessi in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette had an excellent start to move up to 3rd from 8th on the grid by the end of the opening lap. Dino Lunardi had started on the front row in the #2 Matech Ford GT but dropped behind his teammate Thomas Mutsch in the #1 Ford. However on lap two the two cars tangled and both were forced to pit for repairs at the end of the second lap.
Meanwhile the Zakspeed Viper continued to fend off the pressure from Makowiecki until lap 8 when the Aston dived to the inside of Turn 1 to snatch the lead. Once clear the Aston Martin scampered away but for Mamerow his race was over as he slowed at Turn 7 and crawled back to the pits into retirement. This promoted Alessi into second place ahead of Christopher Haase in the Phoenix Racing Audi, who was catching the Italian as the pitstop window approached. Haase pitted on lap 14 and Alessi on lap 19, with the Audi getting the better of the Corvette to be ahead after the pitstops. Meanwhile the leading Aston Martin pitted on lap 20 with Makowiecki handing over to Manuel Rodrigues. On lap 21 the Hexis Racing Aston Martin was caught and passed by Christopher Mies, now at the wheel of the Phoenix Racing Audi. However Rodrigues had a problem and he retired on lap 14 with a puncture.
Mies now held a ten second advantage over second placed Luca Pirri in the Corvette, with Csaba Walter in third at the wheel of the #24 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3. Walter was being caught by Stefano Gattuso in the Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia but on lap 26 the Hungarian also suffered a puncture that forced the BMW into the pits and promoted the Ferrari into the final podium position. Meanwhile Jens Klingsmann in the second BMW Alpina was in 4th place but being rapidly caught by the Prospeed Competition Porsche of Niki Lanik. On the penultimate lap the Porsche overtook the BMW to equal Lanik’s best finish of the season.
At the flag Christopher Mies recorded his second straight win, crossing the line 17 seconds ahead of Luca Pirri and 27 seconds ahead of Stefan Gattuso, underlining the team’s domination of the weekend. Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies are now on 40 points in the driver’s championship, 11 ahead of Thomas Accary, Julien Rodrigues, Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico with four races remaining.
The next two races of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship will take place at Paul Ricard HTTT in France on 3 and 4 October.
Source : SRO