Parisy and Lambotte Celebrate Double Czech Win

The Corvettes shone once more at Brno in the second GT3 race of the weekend, with Joakim Lambote and Mike Parisy in the nr16 Graff Racing Corvette Z06R GT3 taking another win,  along with  a second podium finish for Christian Hohenadel and Daniel Keilwitz in the nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06RGT3, who finished 3rd after their second in the first race.  After an impressive climb up the field, Philip Geipel and Albert von Thurn und Taxis came second in the nr24 Argo Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, giving Thurn und Taxis his first FIA GT3 podium since 2007. 

The race was quite a hectic one, with the nr12 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche driven by Estre, as well as the nr14 Fischer Racing Ford GT with Nygaard at the wheel, going out at the first turn of the race and bringing out the safety car for the first few laps. Once the race got going again, the field split into two, with the top six, comprising 5 different makes, vying for positions, and then a gap of a few seconds between them and the fight for 7th between Hohenadel in the nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette, Palttala in the nr60 Prospeed Competition Porsche, the nr5 Sainteloc-Pheonix Racing Audi driven by Lorgere-Roux and the nr24 Argo Racing Lamborghini Gallardo with von Thurn und Taxis. Johannes Stuck went off in the nr33 Black Falcon Audi R8 LMS on lap 6, and though he managed to get back to the pits, and rejoined the race, this did not last; eventually a stop and go penalty imposed for too short a pit stop saw him return to the pits where he remained. 

Pole setter Diego Alessi led the race from the start in the nr87 Chad Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia, and started to pull out a gap from the rest of the field after the pitstop change to Giacomo Petrobelli, but suffered a stop and go penalty of 4 seconds, having made too short a pit stop. Once he came back out, he was 9th, and then had to pit once more for having stopped in the fast lane, losing all hopes of a podium finish.

This left the race open to his rivals, mainly the nr16 Graff Racing Corvette of Parisy, who, having started 4th on the grid, quickly made it up to 2nd and held onto it, with his team mate Lambotte taking over the lead once the nr87 had taken its first penalty.

The nr1 Hexis AMR Aston Martin of Rodrigues and Makowiecki and the nr9 Team S-Berg Racing BMW of Mayr-Melnhof and Matzke were close behind the leaders, and fighting for positions for a long time, with Makowiecki overtaking Matzke in lap 11 and taking 3rd. Once the pit window opened, everybody shuffled, as usual, and the nr11 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche of Osborne and Vannelet, who had started 11th, came out ahead and settled into 3rd place for a few laps, only to get a 5 second stop and go penalty for having made too short a pit stop, which cost them their podium chances; they finished 14th.

With Philip Geipel taking over the nr24 Argo Racing Lamborghini from Albert von Thurn und Taxis, who had already done a very good job in the first half of the race bringing the car up to 9th from 14th on the grid, Geipel worked his magic and quickly gobbled up the field to finish 2nd.
The nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette of Keilwitz and Hohnadel had an exciting race, having started 2nd on the grid, then they had fallen down to 17th by lap 9, but after the pit stop, Keilwitz managed to take them back up the grid to finish 3rd on the podium.

The nr16 Graff Racing Corvette of Lambotte and Parisy topped the podium, and finished the race with a good 4. 687 seconds ahead of the nr24 who was still closing in.

Overall, the race was very eventful, with 5 makes finishing in the top 10. The nr9 Team S-Berg Racing BMW Alpina B6 GT3 of Mayr-Melnhof and Matzke finished 4th. The nr1 Hexis AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 was driven by Makowiecki and Rodrigues into 5th. Van Splunteren and Holzer took the nr61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R into 6th place. 

CLICK HERE for Round 4 result

CLICK HERE for Post Race Driver Quotes

CLICK HERE for Round 4 Race Facts

2010-05-23
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