Thomas Mutsch and Walter Salles scored their first win of the 2009 season as the #1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT came through from 17th on the grid to take the chequered flag in Round 10 of the FIA GT3 European Championship.  Mutsch made up fourteen places before handing the Ford to Salles, who was looking comfortable for second place behind the #24 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3 of Csaba Walter when the Hungarian’s car suffered a puncture three laps from the flag.  The fight for the other podium positions fell to a frantic three car battle between Manuel Rodrigues (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9), Nicolas Armindo (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) and Luca Ludwig (#16 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3) which was decided on the final lap, with Armindo and Ludwig both getting ahead of Rodrigues.

Round 10
Frederic Makowiecki (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9) headed the remaining 24 car grid after six cars couldn’t be repaired following the incidents in Saturday’s race.  The #3 Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Julien Rodrigues and the #17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R of Diego Alessi were both repaired overnight and would start Round 10.

Makowiecki got a good start but Claudia Hürtgen in the #24 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3 got alongside the lead Aston and took the lead at the first corner.  However she had gone outside the track limits and immediately surrendered the position so as not to incur a penalty.  Hürtgen immediately came under pressure from Diego Alessi in the #17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette, with Kevin Estre in the #35 MP Racing BMW Alpina and Martin Ragginger in the #22 Trackspeed Porsche joining the battle for the minor podium places.  This allowed Makowiecki to open a gap to the chasing pack, with Hürtgen also managing to pull away in second place.  On lap 2 Ragginger challenged Estre for 3rd as Alessi kept pace with the other cars waiting for a chance to pounce.  Further back Thomas Mutsch in the #1 Matech Ford GT had made up a lot of ground and by the end of lap 2 was in 9th place after starting 17th.

Julien Rodrigues in the #3 Hexis Racing Aston Martin, which had been heavily damaged in the first race and repaired, slowed on lap 4 and returned to the pits to retire.  Florian Gruber’s Fischer Racing Ford GT was also abandoned with gearbox failure.

Frederic Makowiecki continued to extend his lead and by lap seven was seven seconds ahead of Claudia Hürtgen and ten seconds ahead of Martin Ragginger, who had finally got past Kevin Estre’s BMW Alpina.  Alessi’s Corvette and Ragginger’s Porsche clashed at the final corner with Alessi running wide before returning to the pits to retire.

As the pitstop window opened on lap 11 the Matech Ford GT was closing on Martin Ragginger for 3rd, having disposed of Cesar Campanico in the Team Rosberg Audi and Kevin Estre’s BMW Alpina.  On lap 12 the Ford took the podium position from Ragginger at Turn 1 and then closed rapidly on Claudia Hürtgen, catching his fellow German as they came in for the mandatory pit stops on lap 17.  In fact the top five cars were the last to stop just as the pit stop window was coming to an end.

Frederic Makowiecki handed the lead car over to Manuel Rodrigues, but a little too quickly as the team were handed a 1 second stop go penalty for missing the mandatory 65 second required window by the same amount.  This promoted Csaba Walter, now at the wheel of the #24 Alpina BMW Alpina B6, into the lead.  The Hungarian had a comfortable eight second lead over Walter Salles in the #1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, with Rodrigues now in 3rd and being caught by the #32 Audi of Nicolas Armindo and the #16 Corvette of Luca Ludwig.  Armindo was challenging Rodrigues for the place on lap 23 when they clashed at Turn 6, with both cars spinning and stopping briefly before rejoining the track in the same positions.

The lead car looked like it was heading to record the first win for BMW Alpina but disaster struck three laps from home when a tyre blew and Walter limped back to the pits for new rubber but not before he had been passed by Salles. The Brazilian had a comfortable twenty second lead while Rodrigues, Armindo and Ludwig fought over the other two podium places.  On the last lap Armindo caught past the Aston at Turn 6 and was followed by the Corvette, with Ludwig briefly holding second before the Audi retook the place.

At the chequered flag it was Walter Salles who scored the first victory for himself and Thomas Mutsch and the second of the season for Matech GT Racing.  The Team Rosberg Audi of Nicolas Armindo crossed the line 1.2 seconds in front of Luca Ludwig and 2.2 seconds in front of Manuel Rodrigues.

Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies, who took no part in round 10 due to the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS being too badly damaged in Round 9, left Paul Ricard with a 3.5 point lead in the drivers championship over Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico.  With 20 points still available in the final two races in Belgium, no less than 15 drivers have a mathematical chance of winning the 2009 title.  Hexis Racing hold a 15.5 point advantage over Phoenix Racing in the team championship and will be looking to score enough points in Round 11 at Zolder on Saturday 24th October to secure this title for the first time.

CLICK HERE for provisional results from Round 10

Thomas Mutsch (#1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) – 1st Place
“We had an absolutely great race.  We had bad luck during the qualifying, we had some brake problems due to pedal box.  We had bad luck to qualify in 22nd place but we started in 17th position.  But the car was absolutely great in the race, a perfect set up so I could push all the time and the tyre wear was good.  This meant that I could give the car to Walter in 3rd position with some tyres left.  He did a great job to finish 1st.”

Walter Salles (#1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) – 1st Place
“I’m really pleased to be racing with Thomas Mutsch.  In Portimao we had an accelerator problem, which was frustrating to lead from pole position and not being able to put the power on the ground, so this result is very good.  Today Thomas did an extraordinary job and I just tried to hang on.  I had a lot of understeer at the end and with the problem with the Alpina, we had all the luck we didn’t have in Portugal.  I tried to go a little bit faster to catch the Alpina but almost lost it twice so I decided that it was better to keep the second place.  They had bad luck and I was able to bring the car home in first place, which is a great feeling.”

Cesar Campanico (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) – 2nd Place
“I did a good start, we had a problem because the power is not great.  I was 5th and I saw Thomas (Mutsch) coming too quick so I decided to let him past as I knew the race would be decided in the second part.  So I tried to keep the pace and handed the car to Nicolas in 6th.  I did my best.”

Nicolas Armindo (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) – 2nd Place
“I tried to pass Rodrigues because I was a little bit quicker but in the end is was a little bit too difficult  to do it because he closed the door.  Both cars were stopped on the track and we both lost time.  I overtook other cars at this corner and when they saw I was there they give the place.  In the end I lost and he went away because I had to restart the engine.  I caught up again, we had a good fight with Luca (Ludwig).  I overtook Rodrigues at the same place and it was clean this time.  In the end we finished second.  I am not so happy because if I could’ve avoided the contact I would have. The car was quick, Cesar (Campanico) did a good job, he didn’t burn the tyres too much, so in the end I could drive well thanks to him.”

Marc Sourd (#16 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3) – 3rd Place
“We had a very poor qualifying session so we started a long way back on the grid.  I did everything I could to bring the car up to hand over to Luca (Ludwig) in a good position.  If we had had a better qualifying we could’ve been in a good position to take the win today.  I been racing with Luca since Portimao, he is very fast and he doesn’t make any mistakes and I hope to be able to carry on racing with him.”

Luca Ludwig (#16 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3) – 3rd place
“I must admit that I think this was my best race ever, although I haven’t done too much yet.  Marc (Sourd) got the car into 9th or 10th and I was able to push.  Because the other cars were fighting I could close the gap and I finally managed to overtake Rodrigues.  I think he was struggling with his tyres but never the less it was a great fight and I’m very happy to be in 3rd position.”

Csaba Walter (#24 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3) – 10th Place
“It was unbelievable, for the second time in a row we had puncture in the last few laps.  The performance of the car this weekend has been very good and we were looking forward to the race.  It was working perfectly until four minutes to the end of the race.  I tried very hard to keep off the kerbs so I don’t know what caused the problem.”

Steffano Gattuso (#8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia) – 6th Place
“We were very fast but I had a stop-go penalty because we made a one second error in the pitstop.  We finished in 6th but we could’ve been on the podium here, so it is disappointing.”

Dino Lunardi (#18 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S) – 5th Place
“A good race but very, very hard. Johannes (Stuck) did a fantastic job at the beginning of the race, the car was very fast but I think we had a problem when I took the wheel because lap after lap the car degraded in performance and at the end it was almost impossible to drive.  It had a lot of oversteer, so I think the problem was with the suspension or maybe a broken anti roll bar.  This is my first time with Mühlner Motorsport, it is a fantastic team, and this is a good result.  I hope I can work with them again at Zolder.”