Matech 1-2 as Lunardi and De Doncker win in Italy

Dino Lunardi and Eric De Doncker won the opening race of the day in #2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT at the Adria International Raceway taking a lights-to-flag victory ahead of the  #1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of  Walter Salles and Thomas Mutsch.  A one second stop-go penalty denied Mutsch the win, with the German driver serving the penalty four minutes from home and then passing Niki Lanik and Frederic Makowiecki before the chequered flag was shown.  The final podium place went to Manuel Rodrigues and Frederic Makowiecki in the #4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9, which had started 17th on the grid.

Round 3 - Weather: Bright  Track: Dry
Thirty-one cars lined up for Round 3 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship on the tight and twisty 2.7km Adria circuit.  As the lights went out Dino Lunardi (#2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) led the field across the line and into the first corner.  Walter Salles in the #1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT was passed by Christoffer Nygaard in the #28 Fischer Racing Ford GT on the run into Turn 1.  Thomas Accary in the #3 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 also got a great start moving up from 9th at the start to 4th by the second corner.  With so many cars on the tight track contact was inevitable with #29 Fischer Racing Ford GT of Frank Kräling coming into the pits with a shreaded rear left tyre.

At the front Lunardi held the lead from Nygaard, Salles, Accary and Stefano Gattuso in the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Dimitri Enjalbert in the #100 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport.  On lap 6 Gattuso moved ahead of Accary  but the Aston Martin driver fought back and regained the lost place one lap later. 

Meanwhile Walter Salles managed to find a way past Christoffer Nygaard to regain second place as Dino Lunardi started to pull away from the battle for the minor podium places.  Gattuso continued to challenge Accary for 4th place with Enjalbert keeping the Ferrari driver on his guard, with Geoffroy Horion in the Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 closely following the battle ahead of him on the road.  Smoke was seen from the rear of the Kessel Racing Ferrari but Gattuso was able to keep pace with his rivals.

David Ashburn was another visitor to the pits, the Trackspeed Porsche had rear body damage and a punctured rear left tyre.  On lap 9 the #28 Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard ran wide in the last corner and was passed by his rivals.  The Dane brought the car in at the end of the lap.  A lap later Stefano Gattuso brought the Ferrari into the pits for an unscheduled stop after losing places to the Morgan and Porsche.  The mechanics struggled to remove the front left wheel, delaying the Italian in the pits but the problem proved terminal.

Dino Lunardi had a comfortable 15 second cushion to Walter Salles, as the Brazilian had to defend his second place from Thomas Accary.  These two cars also had the Morgan of Dimitri Enjalbert and the Porsche of Geoffroy Horion filling their mirrors as all four cars fought for track position.  On lap 3 Enjalbert forced his way past the Aston Martin at the last corner with Horion following Enjalberts example to put Accary back another place. 

Further back the #6 Callaway Competition Corvette of Luca Moro spun and continued and the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette of Luca Pirri pulled off the track with smoke seen coming from the car.

The pitstop window opened and Walter Salles went straight in to hand over the Ford GT to Thomas Mutsch. Dimitri Enjalbert hit trouble when he ran wide at Turn 7 and span allowing Geoffroy Horion to take advantage to move ahead of the Morgan.

As cars came in and exited the pitlane two stop-go penalties were issued for Thomas Mutsch and Maxime Martin in the #101 AutoGT Racing Morgan for not spending enough time in the pits.  Just as these were issued the #19 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche of Jaromir Jarik was seen spinning off the track into the gravel with front end damage, with the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari of Phil Quaife spinning onto the grass on the inside of the corner.  The safety car was deployed when oil was spotted on the track and to recover the stricken cars.  The remaining cars who had stayed out now came in to complete their pitstops, including Dino Lunardi, Geoffroy Horion and Christopher Haase in the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi.  Mutsch came back into the pits to serve his one second stop-go penalty and regained the circuit still in contention.

On lap 28 the green flag was waved and racing commenced with Eric de Doncker, now at the wheel of the #2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, holding an eleven second advantage over Niki Lanik in the #12 Prospeed Competition Porsche, with Thomas Mutsch in third and Christopher Mies in fourth in the #26 Audi.  Mutsch was right on the tail of Lanik’s Porsche and took the second place away from Austrian before the end of the lap by diving down the inside at Turn 8.

Behind the leaders the #16 Corvette of Marc Sourd collided with the #7 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Claudio Ricci, who collected the unfortunate Maxime Martin in the #101 Morgan at the last corner on the circuit.  All three cars were out on the spot but were able to move to a safe position so the safety car didn’t need to be deployed for the second time. 

The accident promoted the #31 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini of Albert von Thurn und Taxis into fifth place but he had the two Hexis Aston Martins of Julien Rodrigues (#3) and Frederic Makowiecki (#4) right behind.  Rodrigues and then Makowiecki moved ahead of the Lamborghini and then the #3 Aston moved ahead of its sister car on lap 31 to get on terms with Niki Lanik’s Porsche.  The three cars were nose to tail as they tried to thread their way through the backmarkers with blue flags waving to warn the slower cars.

Makowiecki finally got his chance on lap 33 but Lanik fought back and made the French driver work really hard for the place.  The Aston finally moved ahead on lap 34.  Behind Rodrigues, the Reiter Lamborghini was coming under pressure from Claudia Hürtgen’s BMW Alpina and the Viper of Sascha Bert.  The Viper swept past both cars in just two laps, with the Hürtgen also getting ahead of the Lamborghini on lap 37.  von Thurn und Taxis retook the place on lap 39, with Hürtgen using her vast experience to finally get past the Lamborghini two laps from home to take 7th place.

Meanwhile at the front De Doncker’s lead was being eroded by Mutsch as the #1 Ford GT homed in on the leader by 1.5 seconds a lap.  A lead change looked inevitable when Mutsch was informed that he would have to come back into the pits to serve his earlier stop-go penalty because he had pitted under the safety car, which wasn’t permitted under the regulations.  Mutsch came into the pits at the end of lap 40 and rejoined the track behind Lanik’s Porsche.  The German quickly moved ahead of the Austrian and then caught the Aston Martin of Makowiecki.  On the last lap Mutsch put the nose of the Ford down the inside of the Aston at the first corner but Makowiecki fought back to get on terms with the Ford.  However he ran wide in Turn 5 allowing Mutsch to move ahead and take the second place and score a Matech GT Racing 1-2 as Eric de Doncker took the chequered flag for the first time in FIA GT3.

Round 3 result here

Dino Lunardi (#2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) – 1st Place
“This is my first win in FIA GT3.  Eric and I tried a different strategy for this weekend.  I did the pole position for this race.  At the start of the race my job was to create a big gap to the other drivers and to give Eric a good car with good brakes and tyres.  It was a crazy race because we were lucky with the safety car when we changed the driver and we were lucky with the stop and go penalty for Thomas.  Eric did a fantastic job at the end and we are very, very happy.”

Eric de Doncker (#2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) – 1st Place
“The decision for Dino to go first was good because he is quicker than me.  The goal was to give me a 15 second advantage and he did a fantastic job.  I knew a faster driver could catch me by the end of the race but I was confident that I could go for the win.  I was scared when I saw the safety car go out when Dino came into the pits and we’d loose our advantage.  But when the safety car went in I had a 15-second lead, which was good enough to win.  It is going to be more difficult tonight because I’m starting in 23rd position but we’ll see.”

2009-05-16
Subscribe:   Subscribe with small images:   Subscribe with medium images: