Could the Championship Be Won in Portugal?

With eight rounds of the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship completed the German pairing of Daniel Keilwitz and Christian Hohenadel hold a commanding lead in the 2010 Driver’s Championship and only need to maintain the gap to their nearest rivals during Rounds 9 & 10 in Portugal to be crowned 2010 Champions before the season finale in Belgium next month.

Last year the FIA GT3 European Championship visited the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for the first time, a week before the FIA GT Championship, and proved that this brand new track on the Southern tip of Portugal, provides exciting and dramatic racing.  2009 Champions Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies scored a double victory in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8, something the current championship leaders will be hoping to emulate. 

Christian Hohenadel and Daniel Keilwitz, in the Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3, dominated the proceedings at Paul Ricard last time out, taking a double race win to add to the victory they secured at Silverstone back in May.  These victories, with a further three podium finishes, has given them a 51-point lead over their nearest rival Joakim Lambotte and Mike Parisy, with a maximum of 50-points on offer for the two races at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, they are on the brink of becoming the latest drivers to lift this coveted European title. 

In the first four races of the season Corvette was the dominant force winning three of the first four races and filling five of the six podium places in Rounds 3 and 4 at Brno. However this situation changed at Jarama in June and while the Corvette was still on the pace on the tight twists and turns of the Spanish circuit, the two race victories went to the Saintloc-Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Belgian drivers Greg Franchi and Stephane Lemeret and a debut victory in European competition for the BMW Z4 run by Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport and driven by Claudia Hürtgen and Csaba Walter after a race long battle with the Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3R of Marco Holzer and Paul van Splunteren.  The win for the BMW also marked the first for Dunlop and the two drivers became the first female and Hungarian drivers respectively to stand on the top step of the GT3 podium in five years of competition.

Reigning French GT3 Champion Mike Parisy and his co driver Joakim Lambotte won both races in the Czech Republic in May in the Graff Racing Corvette Z06R but technical problems in Spain meant they only scored one championship point. A double podium at Paul Ricard has kept their championship hopes alive but they know they have to defeat the Callaway Competition pairing convincingly to take the title race to a showdown at Zolder in Belgium next month.

Marco Holzer and Paul van Splunteren added another podium finish to their tally in Paul Ricard and it was a good weekend for the Porsche teams as former GT3 Champion Gilles Vannelet returned to the podium with Antoine Leclerc in the Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R.

After claiming victory in Spain, the two BMW Z4s run by Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport were once again on the pace, claiming two 4th place finishes in both races, one for Claudia Hürtgen and Csaba Walter and the other for Patrick Söderlund and Edward Sandström.  Expect the team to be fighting at the sharp end of the grid in Portugal.

Who will be victorious in Portugal? Can the Corvettes be beaten? Can one  of the other marques join Corvette, Porsche, Audi and BMW as race winners in 2010?  The podium finishing cars in Paul Ricard have to carry success ballast in the next two races.  The nr101 Corvette will carry the maximum 40kg, while the nr16 Corvette will get 30kg. The two Porsches (nr 11 and nr61) will carry 10kg each thanks to their third place finishes in France.

For the latest information visit the championship website at GT3Europe.com, where you can also watch the remaining races of the 2010 season live

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