Cunhill and Bermeister take first win of 2010 with Trackspeed Porsche

The first GT3 race on the new Silverstone layout, and the first race of the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship, proved to be an action-packed hour, with the fight for the lead lasting well into the final laps.

GT3 newcomer Jose Luis Cunill, allied with Porsche regular Tim Bergmeister, in the nr20 Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3R, claimed the win after a long battle – Trackspeed’s first win in the Championship in three years of competition. Toni Seiler and Dino Lunardi came in second place in the nr18 Toni Seiler Racing Corvette Z06R GT3. After an impressive start in the nr25 Argo Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, Philip Geipel and Ellen Lohr came in third place.  With three different makes in the top three, and six in the top ten, the season looks to be off to an excellent start.

Having started on the front row, Philip Geipel took an early lead in the nr25, and quickly increased his gap from the rest of the grid, extending it to an impressive 17.718 seconds by lap 13. However, after the pit stop to hand the car to his team mate Ellen Lohr, the leaders began to close up quickly. The nr16 Graff Racing Corvette Z06R GT3, driven by reigning French GT3 Champion Mike Parisy caught up and overtook her on lap 22.  Lohr managed to hold on to second place, with the nr20 Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3 R of Tim Bergmeister catching up fast.  A spin on lap 25 cost her second place, and as, in its turn, the nr18 of Toni Seiler and Dino Lunardi overtook the nr 25 Lamborghini, it looked likely they would lose their podium finish.  However, the race-leading nr16 suffered a problem in the last lap, pulling to the side of the track, leaving Trackspeed to take a well-deserved win ahead of Toni Seiler’s Corvette and Lohr’s Lamborghini.

The nr11 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of reigning GT4 Champion Joe Osborne and 2007 GT3 Champion Gilles Vannelet made a promising start, sticking close to the top 3 cars for most of the race, eventually crossing the line in 5th position; a good start to the season for Osborne, who was making his debut in a Porsche.

Christian Hohenadel, in the nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3, held on to second place until lap 10 when he went off and retired due to a technical problem with the car.
In 4th place came the highest ranked Ferrari, the nr 87 Chad Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia of Giacomo Petrobelli and Diego Alessi. The nr77 Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 was 6th, driven by Csaba Walter and Claudia Hürtgen. The highest ranked Audi, finishing in 8th, was the nr6  Sainteloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Stephane Lemeret and Greg Franchi. The nr 2 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 of Luc Paillard and Thomas Accary was the highest ranked Aston Martin.

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