Dodge Viper finishes first, but Ford GT claims victory

Four wins from four – the Ford GT thunders on

Once again the weather played an important part in the result of a race, as the fourth round of the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship took place on a Monza circuit which was damp, then drying, and then wet. But the race result was decided not on the track, but in the office of the stewards, as post-race penalties demoted the first two cars to take the chequered flag. That handed the race win to the No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis, with second place going to the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3 of James Ruffier and Arnaud Peyroles, with the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of championship leaders Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch being demoted from second to third.

 

Wet track and pit-stops the key to the race

Before the race got under way it was bad news for the No.20 Ford GT, when the stewards decided to move them back five places from the pole position they had taken in qualifying, as a penalty for their part in the crash in the previous day’s race which had also eliminated the No.36 Porsche.

 

No rain was falling when the race got under way, although the track was so wet that full wet tyres were the only option. The No.11 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Lorgere-Roux and Petit led away from pole; they were briefly headed by the No.21 Ford GT, but quickly regained the lead. The Ferrari then pulled out a lead which stretched to almost five seconds; behind them Ellis had let team-mate Mutsch through into second. In only three laps, Mutsch had reduced the gap to nothing; on lap 7, right in the wheeltracks of the Ferrari through the Ascari chicane, he took the lead on the run to Parabolica. On the exit of Parabolica Ellis also got past the Ferrari. On the next lap, the No43 La Torre Motorsport Dodge Viper Competition Coupe of Lunardi and Vannelet made it up into third.

 

The pit-stop window opened after 23 minutes of the hour-long race, but most cars stayed out longer. The No.21 Ford was the first of the leaders to pit, with Ellis handing over to Mortimer just after the halfway point of the race. With the track drying, a switch to slicks might have been considered – but just then, rain started to fall on parts of the circuit.

On lap 17, six of the top ten cars pitted – but, crucially, the No.20 and No.19 Fords and the No.43 Dodge stayed out for an extra lap. That meant that by the time they had made their mandatory driver-change stops, the pit-lane window had closed, with 23 minutes remaining, by the time they left the pit-lane. The penalty for this is a stop-go pit-stop, with the stop being the length by which the window was missed; for the No.43, this was 47sec, and the No.20 was handed a 33sec stop-go.

 

Dodge Viper takes chequered flag, but Ford GT wins the race

Ignoring the penalties, the No.20 Ford now led the race, with the No.43 Dodge in second and the No21. Ford third. Gilles Vannelet, in the Viper, was able to close the gap on the car ahead; at the start of lap 24, he moved to the inside going into the first chicane and went through.

 

From there the top three stayed the same to the finish, less than five seconds apart. Since the penalties had been notified in the last five laps of the race, the teams did not need to stop; instead, the stewards added the penalties, plus 30 seconds, to their overall race time. That dropped the No.43 Dodge to fifth and the No.20 Ford to third, promoting the No.21 Ford GT into first place and the No.1 Corvette to second.

 

The revised results overshadowed what had been a fine race; there were battles throughout the field. Compared to the previous race there were very few incidents, with no major accidents. The No.10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Makowiecki and Lagniez was fourth, a good result from eleventh on the grid – but the No.5 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Balbiani and Tonoli did even better, going from 28th to 6th. The No.6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S of Ashburn and Williams was seventh, just ahead of the No.44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Thiry and Greenhalgh. The No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Kraihamer and Knauss was seventeenth, one place ahead of the No.22 Matech Mustang Racing Ford Mustang FR500 GT of Maxwell and De Doncker. The No.30 Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Laffite and O’Neill was 26th, while the sole Jaguar XKR in the race, the No.33 APEX Motorsport car, pulled off soon after Bellm handed the car over to Hall.

 

The result means Khan and Mutsch continue to lead the championship, although their lead is down to only two points, ahead of Ruffier and Peyroles. Bradley Ellis is third, two points further back, with Alex Mortimer in fourth. The next races in the series are at Oschersleben,in Germany, on 5th and 6th July; the last time the FIA GT3 European Championship visited the circuit in 2006, the first race saw a Dodge Viper 1-2 finish while the top two spots in the second race went to Aston Martin.

2008-05-18
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