07/04/2010
On the morning, the cars of the FIA GT3 European Championship were on track for the race of round 8. Daniel Keilwitz and Christian Hohenadel took another win to score a maximum 50 points in the two races at Paul Ricard. Keilwitz crossed the line in the nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3 ahead of championship rival Joakim Lambotte in the nr16 Graff Racing Corvette, with Paul Van Splunteren finishing on the podium for the second time in two races in the nr61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3-R. The top 3 cars were covered by just 1.8 seconds at the end of the 60-minute race.
Under a bright and sweltering sun, the second race of the GT4 European Cup held during the French weekend saw a second consecutive Maserati Granturismo victory. Alessandro Pierguidi won the race, while Matt Nicoll-Jones and Hunter Abott took a first podium in the IMS Ginetta. Championship leader Paul Meijer took third, despite a drive through and the Dutch Aston driver now has a comfortable lead in the championship as his main rival, Michael Mallock, was forced to retire in his RS Williams Aston Martin. The opening stages of the second race of the weekend were again very open. The MC Maserati, the IMS Ginetta, both Rhesus Astons, the RS Williams Aston and the RJN Nissan of Lucas Ordonnez put up a good show.
At 2:15 pm started the race of FIA GT1 World Championship. The Vitaphone Maserati No.1 of Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini completed a hard-fought victory in an incident-packed Championship Race at Paul Ricard. Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck in the Nissan GT-R No.23 were second ahead of the No.33 Triple H Maserati of Altfrid Heger and Alexander Margaritis. Bas Leinders and Martin Maxime also produced a stunning drive in the Marc VDS Ford GT No.40 to finish fourth from 20th place on the grid. The Phoenix Racing Corvette No.13, driven by Marc Hennerici and Andrea Piccini was fifth. They were heading for the podium in comfortably holding third place before a stop-go penalty towards the end of the race. The result means that Maserati were the overwhelming winner of the battle of the brands, Bartels/Bertolini having also won the Qualifying Race. It also strengthens Vitaphone Maserati's position at the top of the teams' standings.
Finally, the track schedule was completed by 2 races of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo. Results: here
Photo : ERDA
