It was a day of firsts in the FIA GT Championship today, when Marcel Fässler and Jean-Denis Deletraz drove their nr 5 Phoenix Carsport Corvette C5R to victory between the narrow city streets, in the first one-hour Championship race in the FIA GT history.
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Having claimed pole position during yesterday’s qualifying race, Fässler pulled away from his team-mate Hezemans, handing the car over to Deletraz with a healthy margin to take their first win of the season after three pole positions.
Gollin, taking over the nr 6 Corvette, caught up and maintained pressure on the leading GMAC-liveried Phoenix Carsport car, but his race ended prematurely after a brush with the ever-present walls. This left the Vitaphone Maserati MC 12 cars, strong on the city circuit despite their penalty weight, to take the two remaining podium positions, strengthening their lead in the Teams and Drivers classifications – but further increasing their weight for Brno.
In GT2, CR Scuderia confirmed yesterday’s qualifying race by taking the team’s first FIA GT victory, with Andrew Kirkaldy and Rob Bell crossing the line 0.3 ahead of the nr 50 AF Corse Ferrari. Kirkaldy caught and overtook Bruni in the closing stages, with Bruni reporting brake problems. Bruni and Vilander took second in both races, to maintain their comfortable lead, while this result should allow the nr 50 to remove its 75 kg super-maximum handicap weight for the next race. Third was the nr 61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Westbrook and Collard.
Temperatures were high, over 36C, and the one-hour format was very suitable to the tough conditions, with the 25,000 strong crowds in the grandstands around the city track enjoying the close racing between the walls. A total of 44,000 attended the weekend.
