Campbell and Zani lead free practice

 For the fourth meeting of the inaugural season of the FIA GT3 European Championship, the teams and drivers are in France, at the challenging and historic circuit of Dijon-Prenois.  3.8 km long, many of the teams have prior knowledge of the track, as one of the pre-season test days where held here in April.   

WEATHER

The sun is currently shining on the Dijon paddock, a welcome change after unseasonably cold weather during the month of August. 

HANDICAP WEIGHTS

For Dijon, the following performance balancing criteria apply : -         

 Ascari KZ1R : + 130 kg and hard tyres-         

Aston Martin DBRS9 : + 60 kg
Corvette Z06 : to raise the height of the chassis from the ground by 10 mm at the front (151 mm instead of 141) and to 10 mm at the rear (100 mm instead of 90 mm)
 +100 kg of ballast
1 restrictor of 75.00 mm maximum diameter, hard compound tyres-         

Dodge Viper Competition Coupe : 2 restrictors of 48.56 mm
ride height of 99mm at the front and 124 mm at the rear
hard tyres and 100 kg -         

Porsche 997 GT2 : the 20 kg penalty weight is removed, and the cars are allowed to use a standard fuel tank 

LAST TIME

The last round took place in Spa-Francorchamps,  during the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa meeting.  Pole positions were claimed by BMS Scuderia Italia’s Marcello Zani – the first pole for an Aston Martin DBRS9 – and by local hero Frédéric Bouvy, in a Racing Logistic Dodge Viper Competition Coupe.  Both races were won by Bouvy and his French team-mate Patrick Bornhauser.  This put Bornhauser in the lead in the Drivers’ classification.  To date, no team has claimed pole position twice – and there has been a different overall leader after every race weekend. 

PADDOCK RUNDOWN

38 cars are due to take part in this weekend’s seventh and eighth rounds of the FIA GT Championship.  Seven brands are represented, with nine Porsche 997 GT3 Cup cars, eight Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, five Corvette Z06, Aston Martin DBRS9 and Ferrari 430 GT3, three Lamborghini Gallardo and three Maserati GranSport Light.

 -          Tech 9 driver Sean Edwards, currently second in the classification, has been joined by regular British GT driver Phil Keen in the nr 9 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR

-          Classification leader Bornhauser is rejoined by Jean-Luc Blanchemain in the Racing Logistic Dodge Viper Competition Coupe nr 11

-          Patrick Bourdais, the father of double CHAMP-car star Sébastien, will race in the nr 12 Racing Logistic car alongside Jean-Yves Adam

-          Champion skier, Hans Knauss, who raced for Renauer Motorsport in the FIA GT Championship earlier this year, will race for Reiter Engineering.

-          Young French driver Julien Schell will share the nr 16 Team Carsport Callaway Corvette Z06 with Uli Berberich-Martini-          British driver Michael Bentwood joins Barwell for this race, sharing the nr 22 Aston Martin DBRS9 with Martin Rich

-          Stéphane Daoudi, a regular in the FIA GT Championship, rejoins JMB to share the nr 34 Ferrari 430 GT3 with Hector Lester.

-          JMB Racing has entered a further two Ferrari 430 Challenge GT3 cars under the name JMB Racing Competition.  The nr 38 will be shared by Massimo Cattori of Italy and Miguel Iacovacci of Spain, while the nr 39 is in the hands of Gian Luca Giraudi and former F1 driver Loris Kessel of Switzerland. 

FOUNDATION JULIE TONELLI

Larbre Competition driver Gérard Tonelli  lost his only daughter, a talented karting competitor, in a road accident in 2002.  Her parents are creating a foundation in her name, to help young children.  To bring their work to the attention of the press, they are encouraging drivers to support them, by wearing the pink butterfly which is the symbol of the charity.  This weekend, all the track marshals at Dijon will wear this butterfly, as well as the Larbre team drivers. 

FREE PRACTICE 1 CAMPBELL TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HIS TRACK KNOWLEDGE 

The fourth meeting for the FIA GT3 European Championship got underway in Dijon Prenois, with the first free-practice session, where former driver instructor on this track, Christopher Campbell (nr 21 Riverside Corvette Z06 GT3), set the fastest time, but as he said : “the time are going to be much quicker”At the beginning of the session, all the Frenchman were on top, but after the session was briefly red-flagged, because of oil on the track, all the times came down. After 30 minutes, the nr 21 Riverside Corvette Z06 GT3 of Christopher Campbell was leading with a lap of 1.22.515, the only driver under 1.23 so far, ahead of Patrick Bornhauser in the nr 10 Racing Logistic Dodge Viper Coupe and the nr 23 BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBRS9 and the nr 13 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 – four makes in the top 4. At the last second, the nr 9 Tech 9 Motorsport Porsche of Sean Edwards and Phil Keen managed to increase its time, and with a lap of 1.22.946, the nr 9 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup took the second position. This made five different cars in the top 5, and only one second separated the car in third position, the nr 10 Racing Logistic Dodge Viper Coupe, and the car in fourteenth position, the nr 44 Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBR9 ! 

SECOND FREE PRACTICE:  ASTON MARTIN IMPROVES 

Most the cars spent a lot of time on the track, but the nr 23 BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBRS9 soon improved his morning time with a lap of 1.22.339. Marcello Zani spend most of the time in first position, but as during the first session, all the cars were very close, with again four makes in the top four. The nr 10 Racing Logistic Dodge Viper Competition Coupe was 2nd, the nr 18 Team Carsport Callaway Corvette Z06 GT3 was 3rd and nr the 34 JMB Racing Competition Ferrari 430 Challenge GT3 was 4th, Stéphane Daoudi at the wheel.All the cars were quite close again, with first nine cars within the same second, and all the Championship leaders on the same pace.First of the Porsche cars,  the nr 9 Tech 9 Motorsport of Sean Edwards and Phil Keen, was 11th, only 1.556 seconds behind, while the first Lamborghini was the nr 13 Reiter Engineering car in 15th and the first Maserati, the nr 76 AF Corse was 19th. 

Subscribe: