Haase Scores Audis Debut FIA GT3 Victory

Christopher Haase took the chequered flag in Portugal to record the first FIA GT3 European Championship win for himself, Christopher Mies, Phoenix Racing and for the Audi R8 LMS.  Starting from 4th on the grid Mies quickly moved up to challenge Thomas Accary in the Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 for the lead.  Accary held on until the pitstops but the Aston failed to restart when Julien Rodrigues took over, handing Haase a massive 26 second lead over the rest of the field.  Second place went to the victors of the last race in Oschersleben, the Fischer Racing Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Florian Gruber. The final podium position going to Diego Alessi and Luca Pirri in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R with an excellent drive from the back of the grid to record their, and Corvette's, first podium finish of the season.

ROUND 7 - FULL REPORT

Walter Salles claimed his maiden pole position in Saturday qualifying and the Matech GT Racing Ford GT lined up at the head of the 28 car grid for Round 7 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship.  The Brazilian got a good start to lead into turn 1 ahead of Thomas Accary in the Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9 and Christopher Mies in the Phoenix Racing Audi.  It took two laps for Accary to find a way past Salles and was quickly followed by Mies a lap later as the Ford suffered problems with engine power.

Further back down the grid Luca Pirri, who had started at the back of the grid in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette was making rapid progress through the field and up to 11th place by lap 8.  Danny van Dongen in the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari had kept pace with the leaders and demoted Salles to 4th place  while Accary and Mies continued to battle for the lead.

Mies pitted on lap 14 to hand over to Christopher Haase while Accary continued to circulate until lap 19.  Disaster struck the championship leading car when the engine failed to fire up after Julen Rodrigues had been strapped in.  The Aston refused to start for three laps and that meant their race was destroyed.

Haase held a comfortable 20 second lead over Phil Quaife, now at the wheel of the CRS Ferrari, who was under pressure from Stefano Gattuso in the Kessel Racing Ferrari. An engine problem eliminated this threat, only to be replaced by the charging Fischer Racing Ford GT of Florian Gruber.  On lap 23 Gruber passed Thomas Mutsch in the #1 Matech GT Racing Ford and then two laps later passed Quaife.  Meanwhile Diego Alessi in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette was in 6th place, also passing the Ford GT as Mutsch struggled with limited engine power due to the throttle sticking at 90%. On lap 29 the Corvette passed both the Ford and the Audi of Cesar Campanico to move into the final podium place.

Christopher Haase crossed the line to take the chequered flag on lap 33 to record the first FIA GT3 win for Audi, over 24 seconds ahead of Florian Gruber and 27 seconds ahead of Diego Alessi. 

CLICK HERE for the provisional race results for Round 7

CLICK HERE for Round 7 Race Facts

CLICK HERE for driver quotes from Round 7

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