Chris Buncombe maintains his place as the leading British driver in this year’s FIA GT1 championship. 

“That was a hot race!” said Chris Buncombe after the FIA GT race at Imola Sunday afternoon. Due to the very high ambient heat, it was a race of stamina for the cars, their tyres and all the drivers.

“I am actually pleased we achieved a 5th place finish given that the  gear  lever  had  broken  just  before  I  took  over  the  car  for  the  second  stint.  This resulted in our car losing ‘Power Shift’, so we had to lift off on each up shift resulting in a loss of top end performance. Our car also had to serve a drive through penalty – that lost us places too, otherwise I am sure we were on for a podium!” Chris explained.   The No 16 JMB Racing Maserati MC 12 GT1 had started the race from 3rd position on the grid, and followed a three pit stop strategy. Fuel consumption was predicted to be critical at this difficult historic circuit, and this was proved when rival cars on a two pit stop strategy found their fuel loading critically marginal for the last couple of laps.  

Philipp  Peter started the race  and handed over to  Chris Buncombe  who maintained  a competitive  2nd  place  behind  the  GLPK  Carsport  Corvette  which  had  been  the  pole setter and was the eventual race victor. “I was gaining on the lead Corvette before I was obliged  to  execute  the  drive  through  penalty”  Chris  said. 

“I  handed  the  car  back  to Philipp  after  the  second  pit  stop  and  Roman  Rusinov  drove  the  last  stint”  he  added. “Even  with  a  broken  gear  lever  we  had  a  really  competitive  package  today.  That  is  a tribute to the JMB Racing Team, the Maserati MC 12 GT1, our Pirelli tyres and all our Sponsors and supporters! ”