Peyroles and Ruffier take race win and Drivers' title

The destinies of the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles of the 2008 FIA GT3 European Championship were always going to be decided at the Dubai Autodrome – what nobody realised was that it would take just one of the two 60-minute races to settle matters. When Arnaud Peyroles and James Ruffier came home first in the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette Z.06R GT3, with the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Ian Khan and Thomas Mutsch down in fourth, then both the race win and the Drivers’ Championship were theirs. Second place went to the No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 of Thomas Accary and Pierre-Brice Mena, ahead of the No.21 Matech Ford GT of Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer. Some consolation for Matech GT Racing: with three car finishing in the points, they secured the Teams’ title.

 

Fast but cautious as contenders stay close

When the lights turned green the front row found itself swamped by the cars further back. The No.21 Matech Ford GT, starting from pole, dropped back to second place, but the No.10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Lagniez and Makowiecki, starting second, was shuffled well down the order, and was forced to pit with a puncture at the end of the lap. The big winners were the cars which had started on the outside of the grid; The No.8 Hexis Aston took the lead from fourth, the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette leapt from eighth to third, and the no.17 Brixia Racing Aston Martin of Frassineti and Zani moved up from sixth to fourth.

 

At this stage three of the four cars still in contention for the title filled the top three places – although the No.3 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3 of Cadei and Kuzmynikh spoiled things by overtaking the No.1 Corvette for third on lap 3. Three laps later, the Ferrari was up to second – but just two laps later the Ferrari suddenly slowed; it limped back to the pits and out of the race. It was bad news for the fourth car still with a chance in the Drivers’ Championship; the No.20 Matech Ford GT was down on the fringes of the top ten, handicapped by an engine problem in qualifying which had left them 19^th on the grid. Over the opening laps the top three were very close, but as the race progressed Accary, in the No.8 Aston Martin, increased his pace and pulled out a lead over his pursuers.

 

The window for the mandatory pit-stops opened on lap 11, and at this point differing strategies came into play. The No.1 Corvette pitted immediately, as did the No.20 Ford GT, while the rest of the leading runners stayed out; Accary came in to hand over to Mena on lap 16 while Ellis left it one lap later, to the very last minute, before Mortimer took over.

 

Ruffier finds pace to take victory and Drivers’ title

Once the pit-stops were over the top four positions were unchanged – Aston Martin, Ford GT and Corvette ahead of the No.17 Brixia Racing Aston Martin of Frassineti and Zani in fourth. Mutsch, in the No.20 Ford GT, had immediately put in some fast laps and had risen to fifth, which became fourth on lap 19 – but in front of them, the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette, with Ruffier behind the wheel, was on the move. On lap 19 he took a look down the inside of the No.21 Ford GT into turn 1 but thought better of it – but he was not to be denied, and found a way past Mortimer on the following lap. At this stage he was 6.6sec behind the No.8 Hexis Aston Martin – but Mena then got badly baulked by a back-marker, and inside two laps the gap was down to just 1.2sec.

 

It was clearly just a matter of time, the Corvette visibly quicker – not that Mena was giving up without a fight. On lap 23 Ruffier almost made it past but Mena held the inside line into the following corner and forced Ruffier to back off; the Corvette driver simply bided his time and powered past down the main straight at the beginning of lap 24, taking the lead into the first corner.

 

From there to the chequered flag the top positions remained static, so Peyroles and Ruffier took the chequered flag, and with it the Drivers’ Championship. Accary and Mena finished second, while Ellis and Mortimer were third, ahead of Khan and Mutsch in fourth. The result means Peyroles and Ruffier have 54 points, 11 clear of Accary and Mena on 43; Khan, Mutsch and Ellis are tied on 41 points, with Mortimer on 39.

 

Matech GT Racing has secured the Teams’ title – on 102 points, the team is a huge 30 points clear of Hexis Racing, with Martini Callaway Racing third on 55 points. Three of the five Manufacturers’ Cups will go right down to the final race – Jose Manuel Balbiani won the Ferrari Cup at the previous event, and while Peyroles and Ruffier’s tally of 69 points in the Corvette Cup could be equalled by Matzke and Skula in the No.38 MM-Racing Corvette, the Martini Callaway pair have taken a decisive number of maximum scores. Bradley Ellis only needs to finish the second race to win the Ford Cup; by contrast Accary and Mena are now level on points with Lagniez and Makowiecki in the Aston Martin Cup. Williams and Ashburn take a five-point lead in the Porsche Cup over Jaromir Jirik into the final race.

 

 

2008-12-05
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