Hexis Aston Martin triumph as series leaders fail to score

In the ninth race of the FIA GT3 European Championship Thomas Accary and Pierre-Brice Mena ran a perfect race in the No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9. Starting from pole they led all but two laps and claimed their first win of the season. They led home the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Luca Pirri and Jürgen von Gartzen, with third place going to Michael Petit and Dino Lunardi in the No.13 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 – but the real drama of the race revolved around the two pairs of drivers who lead the Championship.

 

Close battles through the field as series leaders spin off

Over the past few races the key to landing a good finish has been avoiding the first-corner chaos as the big GT3 pack try to find a way through. At Nogaro, against all expectations the field were remarkably well-behaved; the only first-lap casualty was the No.38 MM Racing Corvette Z.6R GT3 of Matzke and Skula, which spun out of fifth place and out of the top ten. Right from the beginning the No.8 Aston Martin was easily the fastest car on the track – Accary had pulled out a gap of over two seconds after just two laps, and extended it at over half a second a lap. At this stage, with the exception of the No.38 Corvette, the top six were still in grid order, which meant it was the No.19 Matech Ford GT in second, with the sister No.21 car in third.

 

On lap 4 Ian Khan was punted into a spin, the No.20 Matech Ford GT coming to rest with the rear wheels just off the edge of the track in a gravel bed. Pulling the car out cost him two laps; this was high drama, as Khan and partner Thomas Mutsch led the Championship before the race started, and as Khan had got the car up to tenth before the incident, they were hopeful of a good points haul.

 

From there until the pit-stop window opened there were few changes in position, but that did not mean this was a dull race; in fact, there were close battles for position raging throughout the field, some with four cars all looking for the slightest advantage. When the pit-stop window opened, on lap 15, some of the top runners made their mandatory driver change as soon as possible, but the leading car, along with the No.21 Ford GT, opted to stay out for longer.

 

Late-race drama gives Aston Martin easy win

Having taken over from Accary, Pierre-Brice Mena seemed to have the race under control, with a lead over some 10 seconds from the No.21 Ford GT – but that reckoned without the pace of James Ruffier, in the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3. Lying third after the pit-stops, Ruffier soon caught Alex Mortimer, in the No.21 Ford GT; after an abortive outbraking attempt at the end of the main straight Ruffier made it past at the same point a lap later – and on the following lap, von Gartzen demoted Mortimer to fourth.

 

Ruffier had clearly decided the race win could be his, and he was closing the gap to Mena by as much as a second a lap – but then, smoke started coming from the rear of the Corvette. It quickly worsened – but it seemed to have no effect on Ruffier’s pace. The gap was down to under four seconds, with less than five minutes of the 60-minute race remaining, when the Corvette finally died – Ruffier was forced to pull off, a premature end to what had looked to be a thrilling climax. Since Ruffier and team-mate Arnaud Peyroles were just two points behind Khan and Mutsch, the mechanical failure – thought to be the differential – robbed them of a chance to leapfrog Khan and Mutsch.

 

But the race wasn’t over yet, and with only two laps to go Lunardi managed to find a way past the No.21 Ford to claim the final spot on the podium. The No.29 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3 of Lesoudier and Scheier finished fifth on the track, but had been given a 2-second stop-go penalty for a pit-stop infringement. Since they did not take the penalty during the race, they had 32 seconds added to their race time – dropping them to 13th – and also penalised with a five-place grid drop for the second race. That promoted Marc Sourd and reigning champion Gilles Vannelet to fifth, in the No.28 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette; David Loix and Stéphane Lemeret, in the No.36 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, were the leading Porsche in seventh.

 

With both Khan and Mutsch, and Peyroles and Ruffier, failing to score they remain separated by just two points at the top of the Drivers’ table – and having taken a win to follow their second place in Brno, Accary and Mena have jumped into third place, only six points away from the series lead. Fourth place leaves Bradley Ellis only one point further back, so the Championship is now certain to be decided at the final event, in Dubai at the end of December.

 

2008-10-04
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