Viper Strikes in Free Practice

The teams and drivers had their first taste of the Algarve circuit in opening free practice session of the weekend with the Zakspeed Viper Competition Coupe of Marc Bronzel and Christian Mamerow leading the way in both of the 60-minute Free Practice Sessions ahead of qualifying for Rounds 7 & 8 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship. 

Free Practice 1
The early pace was set by Christopher Haase (#26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS) and Fred Makowiecki (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9).  Full course yellows flew for six minutes just ten minutes into the session but once the green flags were waved the times continued to tumble with Jens Klingmann (#25 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3) becoming the first driver to dip below one minute fifty seconds for a lap of the 4.7km circuit but the German was quickly knocked off the top spot by Makowiecki and Haase in quick succession.  Marc Bronzel (#37 Zakspeed Racing Viper Competition) set the fastest lap with a 1m47.283 and quickly followed this up with a 1m46.521, which became the standard for the rest of the session.  A red flag delayed track activity after the two CRS Racing Ferrari’s hit trouble and with just four minutes the green flag flew to end the first free practice.

FREE PRACTICE 2

The second session of the day saw the Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Thomas Mutsch straight to the top of the time sheets with a 1m47.944 ahead of the Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S of Tim Bergmeister.  However it wasn’t long before the times began to come down and it was the Fischer Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and then the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 of Christopher Mies that went quickest.  The #31 Lamborghini Gallardo of Klaus Ludwig and Albert Von Thurn und Taxis was see to be losing the rear bumper and was called in for the Reiter mechanics to repair the car.  Nicolas Armindo (#32 Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS) went four hundredths quicker than Mies before Bergmeister took 0.5 seconds out of his time to go top.

The Red flags came out to recover the smoking Morgan of Maxime Martin at Turn 6 and after a seven minute delay the session went green again.  Another casualty of the session was one of the Alpina BMW B6s which spun on oil at Turn 6 and had to be parked behind the barriers for the rest of the session. 

Frederic Makowiecki (#4 Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9) and Phil Quaife (#56 CRS Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia) went 4th and 5th fastest respectively just before Christian Mamerow went quickest overall with a 1m45.859, which he improved to 1m45.802 on the next lap.  At the end of the session the Viper was once again on top, 0.668 ahead of the Trackspeed Porsche and 1.103s ahead of the Phoenix Racing Audi R8.  

As the chequered flag was shown the second Team Rosberg Audi R8 of Lloyd La Marca hit the tyre barrier at Turn 10 and after a few minutes the Swiss driver emerged unhurt.

CLICK HERE to see results from Free Practice 1

CLICK HERE to see results from Free Practice 2

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