2011 FIA GT3 European : Ferrari and BMW win at Silverstone

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2011 FIA GT3 European Round 3 winners : Federico Leo/Francesco Castellacci - AF CORSE - Ferrari 458 Italia

SILVERSTONE : June 5, 2011 - Francesco Castellacci took the chequered flag at the end of Round 3 to give former FIA GT2 Champions AF Corse their first FIA GT3 victory and it was a 1-2 for the all Dutch Faster Racing DB Motorsport team in Round 4


2011 FIA GT3 European Round 3 podium

Round 3 - Lights to Flag Victory for AF Corse Ferrari

Francesco Castellacci took the chequered flag at the end of Round 3 of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone to give former FIA GT2 Champions AF Corse their first FIA GT3 victory. Federico Leo lead from the start from Pole Position and built up a comfortable lead before handing over to Castellacci, who brought the Ferrari 458 home. Maxime Martin and Gael Lesoudier took their first FIA GT3 podium since they won at Silverstone in 2009 with Morgan. This time, from 8th on the grid, they secured the first international podium finish for LMP Motorsport in the teams Aston Martin DBRS9, 3.5 seconds ahead of nr3 Graff Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of Mike Parisy and Philippe Giauque in third. From 15th on the grid, Giauque and Parisy secured the final podium place after a successful last lap move on the nr6 Need for Speed Team Schubert BMW Z4 of Abdulaziz AL Faisal.

With a very clean start from the entire GT3 grid, Federico Leo managed to keep his pole position from the start, and spent the race building his lead. Leo built up a comfortable cushion to his nearest rival when he handed it over to his team mate, which allowed the team to factor in their 10 second success time from the last round.
Behind the leading AF Corse Ferrari, the battle for second place was hard, but fair with Markus Palttala in the nr13 Fischer Racing Ford GT holding onto a strong second until lap 10 when he suffered a right rear puncture, and had to head for the pits.

The fight for second continued between the nr25 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 of Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof and the nr6 Need for Speed Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3 of Edward Sandstroem. Sandstroem closed in on Lamborghini but couldn’t find a way past. At the pit window the Swede decided to stay out as the Austrian pitted to hand over the Lamborghini to Albert von Thurn und Taxis. Sandstroem pitted just before he pit window closed but his strategy didn’t pay off as Abdulaziz Al Faisel rejoined in 3rd place.
However the BMW Z4 was soon challenging the Lamborghini and for von Thurn und Taxis the going got tough. He held on to the place for a few laps but once the nr6 overtook him, the rest of the field caught up, pushing him slowly down to finish in 11th.

Further back Maxime Martin in the nr9 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin started his steady climb up from 6th place and by lap 22 he was challenging the second place BMW. On lap 23 he overtook Al Faisal for second, which he kept until the end.

Also moving rapidly up the field was the nr3 Graff Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, driven by Mike Parisy. The Mercedes-Benz had started in 15th by Philippe Giauque and the Swiss driver managed to climb up the field before the pit stop to hand over to Parisy. The former French GT3 Champion continued to climb up the order and snatched the final podium place away from Al Faisal in the last lap.

2011 FIA GT3 European Round 4 winners : Hoevert Vos/Jeroen den Boer - Faster Racing by DB MOTORSPORT - BMW Z4 GT3

Faster Racing BMW 1-2 in Round 4

It was a 1-2 for the all Dutch Faster Racing DB Motorsport team in Round 4 of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Silverstone with Hoevert Vos taking the chequered flag in the nr35 BMW Z4 after passing his teammate, Harrie Kolen, on the last lap of the race. The LMP Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 driven by Gael Lesoudier and Maxime Martin took the final podium place, rounding off a good weekend for the French team after finishing second in Saturday's race.

Twenty seven cars lined for the rolling start for the fourth race of the 2011 FIA GT3 European Championship season with the nr36 Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW of Nick Catsburg on pole position. However at the green light it was the nr9 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin of Maxime Martin that got the better start and led into the first corner. However behind the leaders chaos ensued as the nr44 Heico Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of Brice Bosi was tipped into a high speed spin which also involved the nr 8 LMP Aston Martin of Dimitri Enjalbert and the nr33 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 of Greg Franchi. All drivers were OK but with debris covering the track the Safety Car was deployed.

2011 FIA GT3 European Round 4 podium

Racing resumed on on lap 5 with Catsburg putting the pressure on the leading Aston Martin from the restart. On lap 6 Catsburg put the BMW alongside Martin's Aston at Turn 4 but the Belgian driver held his nerve and the lead of the race. Catsburg tred again on lap 7 at the same place but had to wait until a lap later before he could make the move stick and move ahead of the Aston Martin into the lead. Once released Catsburg moved ahead of the field while the nr21 MTECH Ferrari 458 of Matt Griffin closed up to challenge Maxime Martin for 2nd.

The pit window opened on lap 11 but most of the front runners elected to stay out. The leading BMW had opened up a 5.8 second gap to the nr9 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin continued to defend his 2nd place from Griffin's Ferrari. At Club corner on lap 13 Griffin dived down the inside and moved ahead just before the lead cars headed for the pits to complete their stops. It was a disasterous stop for the MTECH Ferrari as it failed to restart for Duncan Cameron and the team had to push start the Ferrari, which isn't allowed by the regulations.

After all the stops the nr36 BMW, now with Harrie Kolen at the wheel, had a comfortable 18 second lead over the nr15 Saintloc Racing Audi R8 of Jerome Demay who was coming under pressure from the nr9 Aston Marin now with Gael Lesoudier at the wheel, the nr35 Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW of Hoevert Vos and the AF Corse Ferrari of Dan Brown.

On lap 17 Demay was passed by Lesoudier and Vos and then lost another place to Brown on lap 18, but fought back to regain the position a lap later.

The nr50 AF Corse of Federico Leo was also moving up the field, passing the two Graff Racing Mercedes-Benz before passing Demay's Audi to run nose to tail with his teammate.

Meanwhile the nr35 BMW had moved passed the nr9 Aston Martin to take second place and was quickly eating into Kolen's lead. In just four laps the lead had shrunk from 10 seconds to just two tenths as the two BMWs crossed the line to begin the last lap. Vos dived down the inside at the first corner on the final lap and swept into the lead and Hoevert Vos led Harrie Kolen to the chequered flag to record the team's first win in the FIA GT3 European Championship. The nr9 LMP Motorsport Aston Martin was third ahead of the two AF Corse Ferrari 458s. However the nr50 AF Corse Ferrari of Federico Leo and Francesco Castellacci was given a drive through, which was converted to a 30-second penalty after the race, dropping the Italians down to 11th from 5th place. The nr7 Need for Speed Schubert Motorsport was excluded from the result for causing an avoidable accident.

The win gives Jeroen den Boer and Hoevert Vos (50 points) a five point lead over Edward Sandstoem and Abdulaziz Al Faisal (45 points) in the Driver Championship and the Faster Racing by DB Motorsport team has closed the gap to the Need for Speed Schubert Motorsport to just 8 points in the Team Championship.

Race result : 2011 FIA GT3 European : Round 3, 4 at Silverstone, Great Britain












































































































































































































































































































Race 1 Result
Pos Car Class Drivers Car Time Laps Gap Avg

speed
1
50
GT3
 Federico Leo/Francesco Castellacci Ferrari 458 Italia 01:00:40.783
28
2
9
GT3
 Gael Lesoudier/Maxime Martin Aston Martin DBRS 9 01:00:51.216
28
 10.433
3
3
GT3
 Philippe Giauque/Mike Parisy Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:00:54.970
28
 14.187
4
6
GT3
 Edward Sandström/Abdulaziz Al Faisal BMW Z4 GT3 01:00:55.319
28
 14.536
5
35
GT3
 Hoevert Vos/Jeroen den Boer BMW Z4 GT3 01:01:05.191
28
 24.408
6
7
GT3
 Csaba Walter/Claudia Hürtgen BMW Z4 GT3 01:01:05.878
28
 25.095
7
36
GT3
 Harrie Kolen/Nicky Catsburg BMW Z4 GT3 01:01:05.976
28
 25.193
8
21
GT3
 Duncan Cameron/Matthew Griffin Ferrari 458 Italia 01:01:08.347
28
 27.564
9
4
GT3
 Joakim Lambotte/Gary Hirsch Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:01:10.961
28
 30.178
10
20
GT3
 Luca Pirri/Michael Lyons Ferrari 458 Italia 01:01:12.674
28
 31.891
11
25
GT3
 Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof/Albert von Thurn und Taxis Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 01:01:12.936
28
 32.153
12
44
GT3
 Dominik Baumann/Brice Bosi Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:01:16.252
28
 35.469
13
45
GT3
 Filip Sladecka/Patrick Hirsch Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:01:25.468
28
 44.685
14
15
GT3
 Jerome Demay/Dino Lunardi Audi R8 LMS 01:01:26.868
28
 46.085
15
22
GT3
 Mark Patterson/Joseph Osborne Audi R8 LMS 01:01:32.260
28
 51.477
16
14
GT3
 Mikko Eskelinen/Christoffer Nygaard Ford GT 01:01:37.810
28
 57.027
17
2
GT3
 Petri Lappalainen/Jan Heylen Porsche 911 GT3 R 01:01:38.389
28
 57.606
18
1
GT3
 Paul van Splunteren/Maxime Soulet Porsche 911 GT3 R 01:01:38.782
28
 57.999
19
11
GT3
 Leonid Machitski/Tomas Kostka Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:01:40.047
28
 59.264
20
33
GT3
 Enzo Ide/Greg Franchi Audi R8 LMS 01:01:48.026
28
 01:07.2
21
23
GT3
 Zakary Brown/Matthew Bell Audi R8 LMS 01:01:51.550
28
 01:10.8
22
16
GT3
 Pierre Hirschi/Michael Rossi Audi R8 LMS 01:01:58.317
28
 01:17.5
23
13
GT3
 Markus Palttala/Stephane Lemeret Ford GT 01:02:14.737
28
 01:34.0
24
32
GT3
 Tobias Neuser/Didier Andre Audi R8 LMS 01:02:46.472
28
 02:05.7
25
12
GT3
 Jan Stovicek/Jakub Knoll Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 01:02:47.027
28
 02:06.2
26
8
GT3
 Bernard Delhez/Dimitri Enjalbert Aston Martin DBRS 9 01:01:24.734
26
 43.951
2
27
51
GT3
 Daniel Brown/Glynn Geddie Ferrari 458 Italia 00:27:36.772
13
 33:04.0
15


Weather : Sunny / Track Condition : Dry






















































































































































































































































































Race 2 Result
Pos Car Class Drivers Car Time Laps Gap Avg

speed
1
35
GT3
 Hoevert Vos/Jeroen den Boer BMW Z4 GT3
1:00:57.286
27
2
36
GT3
 Harrie Kolen/Nicky Catsburg BMW Z4 GT3
1:00:58.381
27
1.095
3
9
GT3
 Gael Lesoudier/Maxime Martin Aston Martin DBRS 9
1:01:02.706
27
5.420
4
51
GT3
 Daniel Brown/Glynn Geddie Ferrari 458 Italia
1:01:08.304
27
11.018
5
50
GT3
 Federico Le/Francesco Castellacci Ferrari 458 Italia
1:01:14.004
27
16.718
6
4
GT3
 Joakim Lambotte/Gary Hirsch Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
1:01:18.509
27
21.223
7
6
GT3
 Edward Sandström/Abdulaziz Al Faisal BMW Z4 GT3
1:01:19.210
27
21.924
8
15
GT3
 Jerome Demay/Dino Lunardi Audi R8 LMS
1:01:26.107
27
28.821
9
7
GT3
 Csaba Walter/Claudia Hürtgen BMW Z4 GT3
1:01:27.252
27
29.966
10
3
GT3
 Philippe Giauque/Mike Parisy Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
1:01:27.701
27
30.415
11
45
GT3
 Filip Sladecka/Patrick Hirsch Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
1:01:29.693
27
32.407
12
1
GT3
 Paul van Splunteren/Maxime Soulet Porsche 911 GT3 R
1:01:34.956
27
37.670
13
25
GT3
 Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof/Albert von Thurn und Taxis Lamborghini Gallardo LP600
1:01:42.995
27
45.709
14
2
GT3
 Petri Lappalainen/Jan Heylen Porsche 911 GT3 R
1:01:44.481
27
47.195
15
14
GT3
 Mikko Eskelinen/Christoffer Nygaard Ford GT
1:01:54.565
27
57.279
16
22
GT3
 Mark Patterson/Joseph Osborne Audi R8 LMS
1:02:03.899
27
1:06.613
17
23
GT3
 Zakary Brown/Matthew Bell Audi R8 LMS
1:02:26.407
27
1:29.121
18
11
GT3
 Leonid Machitski/Tomas Kostka Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
1:02:35.543
27
1:38.257
19
32
GT3
 Tobias Neuser/Didier Andre Audi R8 LMS
1:02:41.472
27
1:44.186
20
12
GT3
 Jan Stovicek/Jakub Knoll Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
1:03:02.242
27
2:04.956
21
16
GT3
 Pierre Hirschi/Michael Rossi Audi R8 LMS
59:42.694
25
1:14.592
2
22
21
GT3
 Duncan Cameron/Matthew Griffin Ferrari 458 Italia
50:43.341
22
10:13.945
5
23
13
GT3
 Markus Palttala/Stephane Lemeret Ford GT
35:27.279
14
25:30.007
13
24
20
GT3
 Luca Pirri/Michael Lyons Ferrari 458 Italia
11:06.654
4
49:50.632
23
25
8
GT3
 Bernard Delhez/Dimitri Enjalbert Aston Martin DBRS 9
2:51.681
1
58:05.605
26

Weather : Bright-overcast / Track Condition : Dry

















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































2011 FIA GT3 Drivers' Championship
Round
Pos Name Nat. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
1
 Jeroen den Boer
15
10
25
50
Hoevert Vos
15
10
25
50
2
 Abdulaziz Al Faisal
25
12
8
45
Edward Sandstroem
25
12
8
45
3
 Francesco Castellacci
18
25
43
Federico Leo
18
25
43
4
 Maxime Martin
6
18
15
39
Gael Lesoudier
6
18
15
39
5
 Claudia Huertgen
18
10
8
36
Csaba Walter
18
10
8
36
6
 Mike Parisy
12
15
4
31
Philippe Giauque
12
15
4
31
7
 Enzo Ide
2
25
27
Gregory Franchi
2
25
27
8
 Harrie Kolen
6
18
24
Nick Catsburg
6
18
24
9
 Gary Hirsch
8
2
10
20
Joakim Lambotte
8
2
10
20
10
 Patrick Hirsch
10
4
2
16
Filip Sladecka
10
4
2
16
Glynn Geddie
4
12
16
Daniel Brown
4
12
16
11
 Brice Bosi
15
15
Dominik Baumann
15
15
12
 Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof
12
12
Albert von Thurn und Taxis
12
12
13
 David Hallyday
8
8
Didier Andre
8
8
14
 Mikko Eskelinen
6
6
Dino Lunardi
6
6
Christoffer Nygaard
6
6
Jerome Demay
6
6
15
 Matt Griffin
4
4
Duncan Cameron
4
4
16
 Jan Heylen
2
2
Matthew Bell
1
1
2
Petri Lappalainen
2
2
Zakary Brown
1
1
2
17
 Luca Pirri
1
1
Maxime Soulet
1
1
Paul van Splunteren
1
1
Paul Rees
1
1










































































































































































































































2011 FIA GT3 Teams' Championship
Round
Pos Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
1
 NEED FOR SPEED TEAM SCHUBERT
43
12
20
8
83
2
 Faster Racing by DB MOTORSPORT
15
1
16
43
75
3
 AF CORSE
4
18
25
12
59
4
 GRAFF RACING
20
17
14
51
5
 TEAM LMP MOTORSPORT
8
18
15
41
6
 BELGIAN AUDI CLUB TEAM WRT
2
35
37
7
 HEICO MOTORSPORT
10
21
2
33
8
 SAINTELOC RACING
6
12
9
 FISCHER RACING
6
6
10
 PROSPEED COMPETITION
4
1
5
MTECH MOTORSPORT
5
5
11
 UNITED AUTOSPORTS
1
2
3


Images : 2011 FIA GT3 European - Round 3 & 4 at Silverstone









[Source : FIA GT3 European - Official]

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