• The Swiss pair wins race and title in a thrilling finale, beating the Porschesof Lietz-Roda and Pilet-Narac• First major international success for Trottet Racing, while Ferrari retains GTOpen crown• Guerrero-Wiser’s win puts Villois back on top among GTS teams• Spanish title to be decided tomorrow between De Castro (Drivex Porsche),Bravo-Da Veiga (ASM Porsche) and Sundberg-López (Exakt Ferrari)
RACE 1Portimão, 7 November 2009
Marcel Fässler and Joël Camathias were today crowned as the 2009 International GT OpenChampions todayin the Algarve. The Swiss duo of Trottet Racing shortened the suspense bytaking a spectacular win with their Ferrari F430 in the first race of the last event, beating inan exciting and dramatic finale their closest rivals, Richard Lietz-Gianluca Roda (AutorlandoPorsche), while Patrick Pilet-Raymond Narac (IMSA Porsche) had to serve a drive-through fewlaps from the end losing the first position.
There was a lot of joy among the members of the Trottet Racing, which clinches the firstmajor title of its young career, while Joël Camathias is the first driver to win the GT Open forthe second time and Marcel Fässler obtains a first, well-deserved international recognition.“We are extremely happy”, commented team owner François Trottet, “it has been a toughseason, but we have been competitive and have done little mistakes throughout it. Thedrivers and all the guys have done a superb job and I am particularly happy because it hasbeen a clean, exciting and fair-play fight with our rivals, and this tells a lot about thestandards of the GT Open”.
In the overall standings, Fässler-Camathias now have 229 points, for 206 to Lietz-Roda and188 to Pilet-Narac.
Max Wiser-Lucas Guerrero in the Aston Martin DBRS9 of Villois Racing took victory in the GTScategory, putting again the Italian team on top of the GTS Team standings (the last GT Opentitle still to be decided tomorrow), while Swedish-Argentinean pair Peter Sundberg-JuanManuel López (Exakt Ferrari) won the Spanish GT race, while the other two pairs fighting forthe national title, De Castro-Amaral (Drivex Porsche) and Bravo-Da Veiga (ASM Ferrari)finished 2nd and 5th respectively. De Castro has now 180 points, against 178 for Bravo-Da Veigaand 162 for Sundberg-López ahead of tomorrow’s decisive race.
With the support of Fässler takes a better start but a few turns later, he is passed by Lietz who pulls away. Bellocis third ahead of Westbrook, Sundberg, Narac, Peter, Cerqueda (who will spin soon after),Guerrero, Bravo, Aguas and Amaral. Are already out of the race in lap 1 the Aston of Lancieri(half-shaft) and the Ferrari of Perazzini (engine).
By lap 6, Narac is already third, after passing Sundberg and Westbrook, and having been givenclear way by team mate Belloc, who has to stop on the track in lap 8 with a mechanicalproblem and flames coming out of the Porsche’s exhaust pipe.
Things go on without no major changes, with Lietz building up a 4”5 advantage on Fässler,with Narac 3rd ahead of Westbrook, Peter, Sundberg (who leads among Spanish GTs), Aguas,Guerrero (1st in GTS), Bravo and Amaral (the two Spanish title contenders are in full fight).In lap 10, the leaders start being busy with lapped cars and traffic brings down the gapbetween Lietz and Fässler to 2” by the moment they stop for their driver change (lap 24),soon after Policand retires with broken engine, leaving some oil in turn 1.
Once pit stops and handicaps are over, Roda (who had 15” handicap as opposed to 30” to hisrivals for the title) leads with 15” on Camathias and 22” on Pilet, followed by Garofano,Broniszewski, Wiser, López (1st of the Spanish GTs), Ashburn, De Castro, Kuzminykh, Sicart,Carol, and Gutiérrez.
This last stint is a show from Pilet, who first passes Camathias then takes the lead from Rodain lap 32. The Frenchman, nevertheless, will get a drive-through at the very end, as the teamworked to repair a minor body damage during the driver change, which is forbidden by therules. A similar sanction was imposed to the ASM Ferrari of Da Veiga.
The last few laps were of high dramatic intensity, as Camathias catched Roda and a fierce butclean duel began between the two; positions changed three times in lap 36 but eventuallyCamathias took the advantage, winning the race and securing the title.
