Racing in the City !

For the first time, the FIA GT3 European Championship is racing in a city. On Friday, all the drivers needed to discover the track and work a lot on their set-up. At the end of the day the nr 26 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 set the fastest time, but the time are quite close so far. The qualifying sessions will be very important!

WEATHER
The weather was unstable on Friday, with few downpours, but for most of the day, the track was dry..

PADDOCK RUNDOWN
41 cars were in Bucharest, but after the free practice sessions, two cars had been quite badly damaged:  the nr 35 JMB Racing Ferrari 430 and the nr 20 Riverside Corvette Z06 GT3. The damage to the  Corvette is such that they have had to give up after the first day.
Since Silverstone, some changes have occurred in the driver line ups :
- in the nr 3 Tech9 Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, Tom Haines has replaced Dimitri Deverikos
- In Trackspeed Racing, Ryan Hooker is now racing with David Ashburn in nr 4, and Luc Paillard and Ronayne O’Mahony are in the nr 6
- Two Romanian drivers are racing in their city. David Claudiu and Mihai Marinescu, drivers with Rally experience, are discovering the Dodge Viper in the street of Bucharest. They will race in the nr 9 RPM Dodge Viper. This car’s regular drivers, Richard Stanton and Edward Morris, have switched to the nr 30 Damax Ascari KZ1R GT3, but the will be back in their usual car for the next race.
- Usually entered in the nr 17 Martini Callaway racing Corvette Z06R GT3, Jiri Skula and Martin Matzke could not used their Corvette, as this car has not yet been fixed since Silverstone. So both drivers are in nr 13 First Racing Lamborghini Gallardo for this race only.
- in nr 31 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1R GT3, Rory Bertram is replacing Klaas Zwart
- Paul Warren and Chris Hyman are racing in nr 39 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430
- the AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero are allowed to take part to this race. Frederic O’Neill will drive the nr 49 with former Formula One driver Jacques Lafitte. George Alexandre Strudza and Jean-François Le Roch are in the nr 50

HANDICAP WEIGHTS
Ascari KZ1R GT3 : +120 kg of ballast; hard compound tyres; a raised chassis height of the chassis from the ground to 7mm at the front and to 7mm at the rear
Corvette Z06R : +40kg; only hard compound tyres; addition of 1 restrictor of 75.00mm maximum diameter
Dodge Viper Competition Coupe : +40 kg; only hard compound tyres; raised chassis height of the chassis from the ground to 89mm at the front and to 114,5mm at the rear; addition of 2 restrictors of 48.56mm maximum diameter each
Ford GT : +20kg
 
FIRST FREE PRACTICE : S-Berg Lamborghini fastest to discover the track
Here we are!  The FIA GT3 European Championship is racing in the city for the very first time. All the drivers were looking forward to this first session in order to learn the track and gain information on the behaviour of their cars on this unusual track.
At the beginning of the session the track was quite humid, but it gradually dried. All the drivers had to discover this new street track of Bucharest, and for a lot of them it was their first time ever on a street track. So the times got gradually faster during the session. Nr 14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini started the session with a lap of 1.35.996 and finished it in 1.25.993.  As in Silverstone, this car set the quickest time of the first free practice session. The nr 29 Damax Ascari KZ1R GT3 set the second time, ahead of two Porsches, the nr 4 Trackspeed Racing and the nr 2 Tech9 Motorsport. As expected, on this unusual track, the Porsche seems to work well.
The first Corvette, the nr 16 Martini Callaway, racing was 5th, the first Ferrari, the nr 34 JMB Racing was 8th and the nr 25 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 was 9th. Of course, all the drivers are expected to improve their time during the second session.
This first session was red-flagged three times. The nr 35 JMB Racing Ferrari 430 had an accident at the beginning of the session, then the nr 31 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1R GT3 lost a wheel, and at the end of the session, the nr 20 Riverside Corvette Z06R GT3 hits the wall. The car is quite damaged.

SECOND FREE PRACTICE : Hexis Racing Aston fastest in second free practice
The track was definitely faster for the second free practice; the teams had been able to work on the set-up and the drivers were beginning to get used to this circuit : as expected,  the times were much faster during the second free practice session.
At the beginning of this session, Diego Alessi, in nr 23 BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBRS9 was leading; he was the the first to beat the first free practice time, with a lap of 1.25.252. Then the nr 2 Tech9 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car took the lead for a while, before a great improvement for the nr 28 Damax Ascari KZ1R driven by Andy Thompson. With a lap of 1.22.852, it looked as if Thompson would set the fastest time. However, this was counting without Frederic Makowiecki and Henri Moser.   Moser, the Championship leader, took first position, in the nr 38 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 GT3.  But right at the end of the session, Frederic Makowiecki, with a lap of 1.22.293, took the lead.
So the nr 26 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 finished the day in first position, ahead of the nr 38 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 GT3, the nr 28 Damax Ascari KZ1R, the nr 16 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z06GT3, nr 8 RPM Dodge Viper Competition Coupe and nr 5 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup. Six different makes in the top 6, and 13 cars in 2 seconds… even on a street track, the FIA GT3 European Championship is incredibly close.
During this session, both AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero V8 cars  took to the track for their first-ever official laps. Both cars had problem (brakes for the nr 49 and exhaust for the nr 50), but the team is confident and is looking forward tothe Morgan Aero V8’s first  FIA GT3 European Championship race.

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