Brno Free Practice: Aston Martin scores double top

PREVIEW, HANDICAP CHANGES

The second half of the FIA GT3 European Championship begins with a return visit to Brno, the spectacular circuit in the Czech Republic. At 5.4km it presents a very different challenge to Oschersleben, particularly since it includes some serious gradients. Since the German race the performance handicaps have been given a major shake up. The Corvette has had 20kg of weight added, making a total of 80kg; the Porsche has had 10kg removed, leaving it with 40kg, and the Ferrari can now run 20kg below its homologated weight. The biggest changes affect the Ford GT, which has won five of the six races this season; its weight penalty has been slashed from 140kg to 40kg, but the air intake restrictors have been reduced from 52mm to 45mm, and the car must now run with silencers limiting it to a maximum of 113 dB.

 

There were numerous incidents over the two one-hour practice sessions as drivers tried to find the limits of the dusty circuit, but the end result was the same – the Aston Martin DBRS9 was quickest in both sessions. In the opening session it was the No.8 Hexis Racing car of Accary and Mena which was fastest, while the sister No.10 car of Lagniez and Makowiecki took the honours in the afternoon.

 

FIRST FREE PRACTICE: ASTON MARTIN WELL CLEAR

The first session took place in warm, sunny conditions, and the teams quickly set to work – and right from the beginning, the No.8 Hexis car was at or near the top of the timesheets. Rarely was it out of the top three, but it wasn’t until the final lap, after the chequered flag was out, before it secured the top spot. That final lap of 2:02.563 put it more than half a second clear of the car in second, the No.44 Gravity Racing Ascari KZ1R GT3 of Thiry and Martin, with the No.2 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3 of Meir and Bert another two-tenths back.

 

While the top three spots were filled by three different makes, that first session made the Aston Martin look like the car to have; there were four in the top ten, including all three Hexis entries. The No.19 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Pirri and von Gartzen was fifth as the team got to grips with the new set of handicaps – but if you weren’t driving an Aston Martin, Ascari, Corvette or Ford GT, then you weren’t in the top ten. In fact, the closest any of the others came was the twelfth spot of Balbiani and Ricci in the No.5 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3, which was less than 0.08s quicker than the No.29 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Lesoudier and Scheier.

 

Only one Dodge Viper Competition Coupe went out in the session, the No.43 La Torre Motorsport car of Lunardi and reigning champion Vannelet ending in 20th  spot, while Deverikos and Jirasek, in the No.47 Tech 9 Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 were 22nd. Meanwhile the Porsche teams were having a miserable time of it, with the quickest 997 GT3 Cup S being the No.39 Mühlner Motorsport entry of Thomas and Jirik, way down in 27th place.

 

There were numerous spins as the drivers worked to get the best set-up, as well as sweeping the dust from the track. The No.33 APEX Motorsport Jaguar XKR of Quaife and Dymond limped back to the pits – the team suspected a transmission failure. The No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette of Sourd and Charpilienne went off and brushed the barriers at turn 11, although it was able to continue back to the pits after a couple of minutes. And the final five minutes saw three cars spin at three different corners, as drivers went for a final quick lap.

 

SECOND FREE PRACTICE: ASTON MARTIN QUICKEST AGAIN

The weather remained fine and warm for the second practice session, although the cloudier conditions meant the track temperatures were quite a bit lower. With more rubber having gone down the teams wasted little time in putting in quick laps. The first lap in under 2min 4sec came with the session only six minutes old, and while it was only the final lap of the first session which broke the 2min 3sec barrier, it took less than 20 minutes of the second session for a car to repeat the feat.

 

Once again it was Aston Martins which were setting the pace, the No.8 car going quickest. The No.2 Corvette was briefly quickest, before seeing its time beaten by the No.44 Ascari less than two minutes later. It took a while for the Hexis Racing squad to respond, but the 2:02.269 lap by the No.10 car just 20 minutes into the session was good enough to remain on top spot until the end of the session. Others improved – by the end of the session the top five cars were all under 2min 3sec. At the end of the session it was the sister No.8 car which had claimed second fastest, ahead of the No.44 Ascari, with the No.20 Ford GT of Khan and Mutsch in fourth; all three Ford GTs were in the top ten.

 

This time around a Ferrari made it into the top 10, the No.3 Kessel Racing entry of Kralev and Cadei finishing in seventh place, one spot lower than the No.2 Corvette. The leading Morgan was again the No.29 entry, in fourteenth, while the Porsche entries fared a little better, with the No.36 Prospeed Competition car of Loix and Lemeret in eighteenth.

 

Once again there were numerous spins, including a trip into the gravel by the No.45 Gravity Racing Ascari after just six minutes. The session was red-flagged with just over five minutes remaining after the No.27 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette went heavily into the tyre barriers on the outside of turn 1. The driver, Alessandro Tonoli, was taken to the circuit medical centre for precautionary checks; the session was not restarted as lengthy repairs to the barriers were required.

 

As ever, it would be risky to draw definite conclusions from the outcome of practice sessions; some cars were able to run on virtually new tyres while others were using tyres which had already completed a race distance. The Aston Martin runners must certainly be hoping that the good showing of the DBRS9 in practice translates into strong performances in the two races, while the improvement shown by Matech GT Racing to get all three Ford GTs into the top ten in the second session looks ominous for their rivals. Championship leaders Peyroles and Ruffier must be hoping for some improvement in the qualifying sessions – the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette duo could do no better than 16th and 10th today.

 

2008-09-12
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