After a dominant weekend at the Autódromo Internacional Algarve in Portugal Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies, in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS, lead the driver’s championship by 11 points as the FIA GT3 European Championship heads to Paul Ricard HTTT in the South of France for the penultimate meeting of the 2009 season on 3rd and 4th October.

The Phoenix Racing team recorded the first FIA GT3 victory for the new Audi R8 in the Algarve after Mies and Haase started from the second row of the grid for both races.  Two perfect races resulted in a maximum 20 points from the weekend to add to their two second place finishes at Silverstone and Oschersleben and leaves the German pairing on 40 points, 11 ahead of Thomas Accary and Julien Rodrigues.  The Hexis Racing AMR pairing of Accary and Rodrigues had been leading the championship going into the Portuguese races but a disastrous weekend for the French team saw them leave Portugal with no points.  In race one Accary pitted in the lead but Rodrigues was left stranded in the pitlane after the nr 3 Aston Martin’s engine failed to restart.  Another non finish in race 2 left Accary and Rodrigues with no points, a situation mirrored by the nr 4 Aston Martin of Frederic Makowiecki and Manuel Rodrigues, who too recorded two non finishes.  Despite this Hexis Racing hold an 8 point lead in the team championship over Phoenix Racing but will be hoping for a return to form at their home circuit at Paul Ricard HTTT.

In equal second place in the driver’s championship with Accary and Rodrigues is the Team Rosberg pairing of Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico.  Campanico was hoping for more points on his home circuit in Portugal but the pair in the nr 32 Audi R8 LMS could only manage a best result of 5th in race one.  Having scored three podiums in the first six races this was a big disappointment for the team and Armindo will be hoping for better luck at his home races.

It was a bitter sweet weekend for the nr 28 Fischer Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Florian Gruber when the Round 6 winners recorded their second podium finish in a row in the opening race of the weekend in Portugal, finishing second behind Mies and Haase.  A better grid position for the second race promised much for the German team but an overnight engine problem forced Nygaard and Gruber to miss Round 8.  

At the opening rounds at Silverstone in May the AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport was the car to beat, with Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier taking Morgan’s first international race win for over 40 years in Round 1, quickly followed by Maxime Martin and Gael Lesoudier taking victory in Round 2.  A further podium finish in Italy has kept Martin and Lesoudier in the title race but homologation issues in Portugal gave the two Morgan’s penalties that they were unable to overcome in the races and the French team left Portugal will out scoring any further championship points.

Brazilian Walter Salles recorded his first pole position in FIA GT3 in the Matech GT Racing Ford GT and just missed a podium finish in the race.  In race 2 the two Matech Fords clashed early in the race, putting both cars out of contention for another podium finish.

The Corvette Z06R returned to the podium in Portugal with Luca Pirri and Diego Alessi taking an impressive 3rd place from the back of the grid in race 1 and then going one better in the second encounter of the weekend in the Marc Sourd Racing run car.  The Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of Niki Lanik and Marco Holzer was the best of the Porsches in Portugal, with two points scoring finishes, including 4th in race 2, enabling Lanik to close the gap to David Ashburn to just 3 points for the Porsche Manufacturers Cup.

The BMW Alpina B6 continued to impress in Portugal with the Alpina run cars scoring championship points in both races following on from the strong performances in Germany in June.  Csaba Walter was holding 3rd in the second race of the weekend when a puncture robbed him and Alpina of their first podium finish.  The Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia of Stefano Gattuso and Lorenzo Bontempelli recorded the team’s second podium finish of the season so far in Round 8.  The performance of the Ferrari was further underlined in qualifying and during the races by Phil Quaife and Danny van Dongen in the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari. Albert von Thurn und Taxis took his best qualifying position of the season for race 1, recording a 6th place grid position in the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo GT3.  However a racing incident involving the #25 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 put the Lamborghini out of the race and 11th in race 2 left von Thurn und Taxis and Klaus Ludwig disappointed after a promising start to the weekend. 

The first of the two 60-minute races at Paul Ricard HTTT will start on Saturday 3rd October at 17:30, with the second race on Sunday 4th October at 16:45.