Ford GT wins at Monza - stewards exclude Marc Sourd Corvette

Three races, three victories for the Ford GT

Reigning British GT champions Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis have been reunited this year, to race the No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT in the FIA GT3 European Championship. They avoided the mayhem in the early laps of the first race at Monza, and managed to outpace their rivals, to take victory; they took the lead of the race with nine laps remaining and then eased off to the chequered flag. They led home the No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06.R GT3 of Johan Charpilienne and Marc Sourd – however, in a dramatic development hours after the race, the Corvette was excluded, and second place was awarded to the No.47 Tech 9 Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Christopher Haase and Dimitris Deverikos. In the revised results, the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette of Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier was placed third.

 

Incidents in opening laps take out top cars

At the start the track was no more than damp – but the difficult conditions were emphasised when the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette spun on the green flag lap, while behind the safety car. Once the race got under way the No.28 Marc Sourd Corvette and the No.36 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of David Loix and Stéphane Lemeret quickly pulled away from the chasing pack. On lap 2 the No.19 Matech GT Racing Ford GT spun out of a top-six position at the first Lesmo curve, while two other cars also spun.

 

Charpilienne, in the Corvette, then started to open a lead as the Porsche fell back to the chasing pack – led by the No.21 Ford GT, and then the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT. By lap 8 the two Fords were nose to tail behind the No.36 Porsche, and Loix was obviously on the limit, coming close to cutting both first and second chicanes. Coming out of the Ascari chicane Ian Khan, in the No.20 Ford, made a bold move around the outside of the two cars ahead. It almost worked – but he ran slightly too wide, bouncing back across the track and taking the Porsche hard into the barriers. Loix was out on the spot; Khan limped down towards Parabolica before pulling off.

 

That brought out the safety car, to allow the two cars to be removed; that removed the handy lead the No.28 Corvette had established over the No.21 Ford GT, with the No.47 Tech 9 Lamborghini was third. The safety car stayed out for two laps – and came in just as the pit-stop window opened, which saw fourteen cars head into the pits. Both the No.21 and No.47 cars came in, along with the No.43 La Torre Motorsport Dodge Viper Competition Coupe of Lunardi and reigning champion Vannelet; unfortunately the Dodge was overheating, and the car didn’t go out again.

 

Ford GT powers to victory after pit-stops

The cars at the head of the field stayed out another five laps, and came in just before the pit-stop window closed. Marc Sourd, taking over the wheel of the No.28 Corvette, came out in the lead – but Bradley Ellis had had five laps to get up to speed, and quickly closed right up. He tracked the Corvette for two laps, then pulled alongside as the two headed down the main straight at the end of lap 20; as they crossed the finish line, the gap between the two was given as 0.000sec! The Ford took the lead into the first chicane, and then eased away; Ellis controlled the gap to the end of the race.

 

Behind the Corvette, the No.47 Tech 9 Lamborghini was falling away, allowing the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette of Peyroles and Ruffier to close to within 0.12sec at the finish; the No.29 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Lesoudier and Scheier took a remarkable fifth, having started at the back of the pack from the pit-lane. Sixth went to the No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Mena and Accary, while the No.22 Matech Mustang Racing Ford Mustang FR500 GT of De Doncker and Maxwell took a fine seventh, having qualified 24th. The first Ferrari F430 GT3 home was the No.12 JMB Racing entry of Rambeaud and Misslin, while the No.44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Greenhalgh and Thiry was 12th overall. With the demise of the No.36 Prospeed car, the first Porsche to take the chequered flag was the No.39 Mühlner Motorsport car of Thomas and Jirik, just ahead of the sole Jaguar XKR in the race, the No.33 Bellm/Hall car.

 

However, more than four hours after the race finished, the stewards decided that the No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette should be excluded from the results – the car had raced on the tyres which were marked for Sunday’s race. That decision moved everyone up by one position. It had no effect on the standings in the Drivers’ Championship; Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch still lead after their double victory at Silverstone; Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier move up to second, ahead of David Loix and Mikael Forsten. Bradley Ellis is now fourth in the points table.

 

“Going out on slicks in damp conditions at the start was interesting, but the car was fantastic,” said Mortimer. I caught the Porsche, which was in second place, but then the safety car came out, and I handed the car over to Bradley.” Ellis downplayed his role in the victory. “I managed to catch the Corvette as he left the pits – after that, I sat behind him to pick the right spot to overtake,” he explained. “Once I was past, I controlled the gap – if he got closer, I speeded up a bit. This is a great start to partnering with Alex in the FIA GT3 European Championship.”

 

2008-05-17
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