round #10: 2005 FIA GT: DUBAI (UAE), November 18

3rd Win for Ferrari 550 Maranello

Round 10 at Dubai was undoubtedly the most thrilling of the season. Entry was excellent with no less than 14 GT1 cars (5 Ferraris, 4 Maseratis, 2 Saleens, 1 Lister, 1 Corvette and 1 Aston Martin) and with 10 GT2 cars (7 Porsches, 2 Ferraris 360 GTC, 1 Spyker) plus 1 G2 (the Vertigo) and one G3 (a Ferrari 360).
Fastest qualifier was the R.A.R. Aston Martin of the French aces Christophe Bouchut and Stéphane Ortelli in 1'55"215, followed by the Belgo-Dutch Corvette in 1'55"728. Then followed the four Maseratis, all seriously handicapped by ballast. Of them Philipp Peter was the fastest in the #16 Red Bull with the lowest ballast: 1'56"132, followed by the other JMB Red Bull Maserati of Andrea Bertolini, having 60 kg of ballast, in 1'56"349. Then followed the two Vitaphone Maseratis where the #10, with 80 kg of ballast, clocked a similar 1'56"349, ahead of the #9 of Bartels/Scheider, with 100 kg of ballast, in 1'56"556.
Seventh place on the grid went to the #11 Larbre Compétition Ferrari 550 Maranello of Gardel/Lamy, having won earlier twice, and at the start with 30 kg of ballast. The car clocked 1'56"686. Rank 8 on the grid went to the #2 GPC Ferrari 575 GTC of Andrea Puccini in 1'57"040. The fastest Saleen, the #5 of Robert Lechner/Paoli Ruberti was ninth in 1'57"121. Tenth on the grid was the other GPC Ferrari 575 GTC of Andrea Montermini in 1'57"402. Then followed the second Larbre Compétition Ferrari 550 Maranello, the Lister Storm, the second Konrad Saleen and the R.A.R. Ferrari, now driven by the two Russians (in a poor 2'00"774).
In GT2 both Gruppe M Porsches took as usual the two first places on the grid, with Lieb/Rockenfeller (#66) in 2'01"802 ahead of Sugden/Collard (#88) in 2'01"910. Then followed the JMB Ferrari 360 GTC in 2'03"575, followed by the Spyker C8 in 2'04"620. [JPVR]

The #90 Spyker  C8 Spyder GT2-R of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Donny Crevels caused a stir by finishing second in GT2. For the first time this season a Ferrari 360 Modena GTC reached as third the podium in GT2: the JMB car shared by Chris Buncombe, Mauro Casadei and the gentleman driver Albert von Thurn und Taxis.

Just as in Zhuhai the Russian Age Racing Aston Martin DBR9, with France's Christophe Bouchut at the wheel, started from pole position. Here the car is followed by the Belgian Corvette C5R, by the two JMB Red Bull Maseratis C12-R and by the two Vitaphone Racing Team Maseratis C12-R. The eventual winners of the race, Gabriele Gardel and Pedro Lamy had to start from the last place, after they had to change the engine on their Ferrari 550 Maranello during the night preceeding the race.

The 26 cars started under heavy sun. At the front, Christophe Bouchut led them away in the DBR9, from Mike Hezemans in the C5-R, then the four Maseratis, with their various ballast weights. Andrea Montermini was next up in the #3 GC 575, with Justin Keen eighth, and about to produce the best Lister performance of the season. Lamy and Piccini (in the GPC #2), who had to start from the back after an engine change after the qualifications, were hurtling up together, and by lap 5 they were 12th and 13th, both lapping in the 1:57s, while Bouchut was the only man in the 1:56s. Lamy was 28 seconds down on the DBR9 at this stage. Bouchut had pulled out six seconds on Mike Hezemans, which eased out to nine, five laps later – by which time the front two had slipped into the 1:59s. As a result, Lamy had cut the gap to the Aston Martin – and it was 24 seconds. Meanwhile we already lost the #5 Konrad Saleen with a broken driveshaft and the #3 GPC Ferrari 575 GTC with a blown up engine. Out too was the GPC #86 Ferrari 360 GTC.
The top nine (Piccini was ninth) looked very well matched at this point – except for Lamy. He set his first 1:56 and something lap on the 15th tour, and he’d set many more of them before his two stints were over. 1:58s was more or less the norm for the others at this stage.
What about the Maseratis then? At 20 laps, Bertolini was third, 15 seconds behind Bouchut, with Babini and Peter on his tail – but Lamy had already picked one of them off, Scheider in #9, and was right behind Peter’s #16. Passing Scheider would be good practice for later on. Eighth and ninth were Piccini and Keen, just over half a minute behind the blue Aston, while the rest of the GT1s (#4 Saleen, #12 Ferrari 550, #18 Ferrari 550) were over a minute down and out of the real race.
Laps 23, 24 and 25 were pretty special for Lamy, Leconte and Gardel – the Portuguese picked off Maseratis on each of these consecutive laps (Peter, Babini then Bertolini), and he was suddenly third, 17 seconds behind Bouchut, 12 behind Hezemans. Justin Keen was doing wonders for Laurence Pearce’s 2005, matching the leader for lap after lap. There, he was right – the big man said his car was as good as anything out there.
But not as quick as the Lamy-550 combination: Pedro was really on a charge, ripping off 1:56s lap after lap, bringing the gap to the Corvette down from 10 seconds to seven, five, two and then 12 hundredths of a second on lap 30, by which time Bouchut had already pitted, so Lamy was second. He didn’t lead across the line though (yet), pitting after 31 laps – slowly."We think there was some fuel in the tank, but it was not picked up,” said Lamy later. “It made it more exciting, didn't it?" So suddenly that journey from back to front now included a trip backwards, to the tune of a minute. Hezemans pitted for Longin to take over (32 laps from the economical Corvette), and the Belgian was on track ahead of Ortelli – who was finding 1:56 a pleasant pace in the DBR9, and soon (lap 38) passed Longin and pulled away.

The #16 Maserati was already a lap down, thanks to slow laps by one of Philipp Peter’s partners, so at 40 laps, approaching half way, Ortelli led Longin by five seconds, then came Bartels in the first of the MC12s (13 secs behind Longin), then Wendlinger in #15 and Biagi in #10. The GPC 575 was back up ahead of the Larbre 550, Gardel still that minute behind Ortelli. Gardel deserves to be in contention for the title after his drive in the middle of the race: he held the gap at 60 seconds, and even brought it down towards the end of the second hour, passing #2 as he did so. His best laps were the in the 1:57s, the best of them a 1:57.6. A Safety Car period neatly coincided with the need for a second pit stop (this was a straightforward, two stop race) – a couple of the lesser GT2s having stopped on the track. Some confusion in picking up the leader was sorted out, so that when they went racing again, Bouchut led Kumpen, the three Maseratis (9, 15 and 10 being four, seven and 34 seconds behind the Aston Martin), then Lamy another four seconds back. Pedro would have to repeat his first stint – but how far could he move up in the remaining 28 laps?
16 of the 28 were accomplished by #11 in under 1:57 – but initially, Bouchut was lapping in a similar pace. The Maseratis weren’t though, and Babini was the first victim (lap 65). Lap 67 and Lamy set the best lap of the race (1:56.015), but Bertolini was still 20 seconds ahead. Not for long though: by lap 75 the gap was just four seconds, and on lap 77, Lamy was fourth. Bouchut’s lead over Kumpen had been 20 seconds, but Scheider demoted the Corvette, so on lap 78 the order was: Bouchut (Aston Martin), Scheider (Maserati) at 21", Kumpen (Corvette) at 22", Lamy (Ferrari) at 25", Bertolini (Maserati) at 28" and Babini (Maserati) at 42".
A lap later, Scheider was the race leader: Bouchut was out with no drive on the Aston Martin. Lamy could win this. He hunted down the Corvette’s small margin, and took second on lap 82 – at which point Scheider was five seconds up the road. Not for long, a few more 1:56s and the gap was nine-tenths on lap 85 (four to go), then six-tenths, then two-tenths. On the penultimate lap, Lamy passed Scheider (between turns 13 and 14), and that was it – a third win for the Larbre Ferrari. (Report by dailysportscar.com).

Next year the European GT3 Championship will be THE attraction of FIA GT Racing. Such teams as BMS Scuderia Italia and Barwell Motorsport will enter each three Aston Martins DBRS9. On December 5, 2005 Christophe Bouchut tested no less than 8 GT3 cars at the Paul Ricard Track. The Aston Martin DBRS9 was the fastest in 2'14"669, followed by the Dodge Viper (2'14"938), the Porsche 997 (2'15"765), the Maserati Gran Sport (2'18"252), the Lamborghini Gallardo (2'18"316), the Ascari KZ01, the Nissan 350Z and the Lotus Exige. In Dubai a G3 Ferrari 360 Modena (#132) finished 18th.