Hexis Celebrate Night Race Win

Manuel Rodrigues and Frederic Makowiecki celebrated on the top step of the podium in Adria as they won the first ever FIA GT3 night race.  The Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 finished less than a second ahead of Maxime Martin and Gael Lesoudier, who gave the AutoGT Racing team its third podium in four races.  The Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Walter Salles and Thomas Mutsch had led the race from the start, but Salles, who was pulling away from the Hexis Aston Martin, spun off the track on some fluids dropped by another car into the gravel at Turn 5. Steffano Gattuso passed the Trackspeed Porsche 997 of David Ashburn on the last lap to claim the final podium position in the Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia.

Round 4:    Weather: Dark     Track: Dry
The #32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS of Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico was missing from the grid after suffering a broken steering mounting point.  Also missing was the #28 Fischer Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Florian Gruber following round 3.

Maxime Martin led the 29 car grid round to the start and as the lights flashed to green the cars powered down to the first corner, all lights blazing into the Italian night.  Thomas Mutsch got the better start and overtook the pole sitting Morgan to take the lead.  Frederic Makowiecki also got a good start and overtook the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia of Phil Quaife and the Morgan of Maxime Martin on the outside of Turn 1 to move into second place.

Further back on the grid Sascha Bert made up six places on the opening lap in the Zakspeed Racing Viper to end lap 1 in 7th place while Andrea Palma made similar progress in the Kessel Racing Ferrari to end lap 1 in 12th from 18th on the grid.  Palma then passed Tim Sugden’s Porsche to move up a further place on lap 2 and then spent the next seven laps defending the position as Sugden fought back with both cars passing and repassing each other.

Mutsch held a slim lead over Makowiecki, the Aston Martin able to keep pace with the Ford GT, maintaining a gap of 0.5 seconds for the first seven laps of the race.  On lap 3 Sascha Bert  passed the #7 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Claudio Ricci and then passé dthe Marc Sourd Racing Corvette of Diego Alessi to move into 5th place behind the Morgan Aero Super Sport of Maxime Martin.  Martin was trying to find a way past Quaife’s CRS Racing Ferrari and for lap after lap the Morgan would close up behind the Ferrari only for Quaife to get the power down and pull away out of the corners.  Claudio Ricci also moved ahead of Alessi’s Corvette on lap six and then caught the Viper of Sascha Bert, setting the fastest lap of the race at that point in the process.  On lap 10 the Ferrari passed the Viper on the inside at Turn 2 to move into 5th. 

Meanwhile Thomas Mutsch had managed to open two second gap to the following Aston Martin on lap11 and then extended this gap as the pit window approached.  Maxime Martin’s efforts paid off on lap 13 as he passed Quaife to take third away from the Ferrari driver just as the pit window opened.  Quaife peeled off into the pits to retire with a battery voltage problem, promoting Ricci into 4th place.

Thomas Mutsch continued to extend his lead, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 16.  There was a three way battle for the final championship point with the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini of Albert von Thurn und Taxis holding off the close attentions of Andrea Palma and the Muehlner Motorsport Porsche 997 of Dimitris Deverikos and as the cars crossed the line for the 18th time they were nose to tail with very little to separate them.

As cars dived into the pits for their mandatory stops, Mutsch and Makowiecki continued to circulate at the head of the field, with the Ford GT pulling away by 0.5 seconds per lap.  Meanwhile Andrea Palma had handed the Kessel Racing Ferrari to Steffano Gattuso only for the Italian to be handed a stop-go penalty for a short pitstop.

On lap 25 the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 of Lloyd La Marca spun at Turn 6 and continued.  There was contact between the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi of Christopher Haase and the #29 Fischer Racing Ford GT of Frank Kräling, which left the Ford spinning its rear wheels in the gravel just off the track, while the Audi recovered to the pits with its bonnet pointing towards the sky.  The Phoenix Racing mechanics tied the bonnet down with tank tape and sent Haase back on his way while the Ford was recovered to the pits to retire with rear end damage.

The leading cars pitted right at the end of the pit window to hand over to their co-drivers, with Walter Salles out in front in the #1 Ford GT and pulling away from the #4 Aston Martin of Manuel Rodrigues and the #101 Morgan of Gael Lesoudier.

The #12 Porsche of Niki Lanik was handed a drive through penalty on lap 29, while the #6 Corvette of Luca Moro spun off at Turn 5, ending up facing the on coming traffic.  Moro managed to turn the car round and rejoin the race after losing a few places to his rivals.

The #26 Audi of Christopher Haase was travelling down the start finish straight when the temporary repairs to the front of the car failed and the bonnet flew up into the air, landing just past the finish line in the middle of the track.  Cars went left and right to avoid the debris in the track as Haase recovered his less than pristine car to the pitlane and into retirement.  The marshals waived yellow flags to warn the other drivers of the debris but the #2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of race 1 winner Dino Lunardi was unfortunate enough to hit it, damaging the front end of the car.  The Ford travelled back to the pits with steam or oil coming from the front of the car.  Oil flags were displayed but several cars slid on the slippery surface, including the leading Ford of Walter Salles, whose car ended up beached in the gravel trap and out of the race.

The safety car was deployed to clear the track of debris and to remove the #1 Ford GT to the pits.  Manuel Rodrigues found himself leading the race just ahead of the Gael Lesoudier and David Ashburn in the Trackspeed Porsche.  The race went green again with  the leading Aston Martin just ahead of the second placed Morgan.  But the two leaders had the #27 Audi of Lloyd La Marca in between them and Lesoudier just couldn’t find a way past the Audi to get on terms with the leader.  Meanwhile Ashburn had the Kessel Racing Ferrari of Stefano Gattuso breathing down his neck after the Italian benefitted from the safety car period.  Gattuso swept past the Porsche on the final lap of the race to claim the last podium position.

At the front Manuel Rodrigues took the chequered flag for his first win in FIA GT3, just 0.9 seconds ahead of Gael Lesoudier in the AutoGT Racing Morgan.  Eight points for second was enough for Maxime Martin and Gael Lesoudier to maintain their championship lead, just 1 point ahead of Manuel Rodrigues and Frederic Makowiecki.  Thanks to both cars finishing in the points in both races, Hexis Racing now have an 11 point advantage over AutoGT racing in the team championship.

The next two races are at Oschersleben in Germany on 20 and 21 June.  Details of the  TV highlights package for the races in Adria can be found on the championship website here

Result for Round 4 here

Frederic Makowiecki (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9) - 1st Place
"The first part of the race for me was very good.  I had a good start and I keep the second place during my part.  The team worked very hard on the carand I had a really good car. It wasn't possible to challenge for the lead during the first part of the race, Thomas was five tenths quicker than me and I just had to make sure I didn't loose too much time to the other cars behind, to keep second place and to give Manuel the car in second place."

Manuel Rodrigues (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9) - 1st Place
"It's a big first for me as this is my first win in FIA GT3.  I'm very pleased and my thanks to the team for giving us a perfect car today.  Thank you also to my teammate but he was a bit disobedient because I asked him to hand over the car two laps in the lead and he only managed five or six seconds.  It is a very good result and I'm very, very happy."

Maxime Martin (#101 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport) - 2nd Place
"I did get quite a good start but everybidy else could brake fifteen metres further than me so they passed me at the first corner.  Afterwards I was fourth behind the Ferrariand then I could pass him.  It was good and it was a very good car.  The car was consistent from the very beginning to the end of the race, which is very important and now we are looking for the championship."

Gael Lesoudier (#101 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero Super Sport) - 2nd Place
"I was a little bit frustrated to have a car between me and the leader at the end of the race but when I took the car in third position I had a problem trying to get a good feeling on the track because of the night and because the rear tyres on the car.  But I am very happy for the team for this weekend because we had a lot of trouble in the first race on both cars and I think second place is good for us and for the championship."

Andrea Palma (#8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia) - 3rd Place
"I had a very good start.  We didn't do well in qualifying and after the start we had difficulties because the tyres caused some oversteer, which caused us a big problem. After the pitstop Steffano did a brilliant job."

Steffano Gattuso (#8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia) - 3rd Place
"A very difficult but very good race for us. I pushed very hard during my stint and I would like to thank all my teamfor all their hard work this weekend.  It is looking good for Oschersleben because we had a lot of problems with the engine and gearbox at Silverstone and here the car was very, very good, which let us take third and now we are looking good for the next two races in Germany."

Tim Sugden (#22 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S) - 4th Place
"That was good fun! I made a terrible start; got boxed on the outside and managed to be in all the wrong places on the first few corners.  So I dropped back from 7th to about 9th which gave me a lot of work to do to get back.  It was good fun, the car was quick and delighted that David had a brilliant race.We very nearly finished 3rd, which would've been fantastic.  None the less it is good to finish as the top Porsche, we've had a difficult weekend, so it is nice to come back with something."

2009-05-17
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