Hat trick for the AF Corse Motorola Ferrari
 The
third round of the FIA GT championship ended with a third
consecutive win for the AF Corse Motorola Team in Bucharest
(Romania.)
The result came after a miserable Saturday of high drama
after one car was too badly damaged by Ortelli to be used
in the race, while on the sister car, the engine had to be
changed and thus it was penalised and sent to the back of
the grid, as it had not completed the qualifying session.
The race was therefore all about a climb up through the order
for the Ferrari F430 GT driven by Dirk Muller and Toni Vilander,
ending in another splendid victory in the GT2 class, beating
the Porsches of Collard- Malucelli and Lieb-Felbemermayr Jnr.
by a lap.
The conditions made for a very difficult race, as the weather
changed from driving rain to light rain, with the start taking
place behind the Safety Car. However, AF Corse Motorola did
a good job in terms of strategy and scored an unexpected success.
For the record, the overall race win went to the Maserati
of Bertolini-Piccini, followed by the Lamborghini of Bouchut-Mucke
and the Maserati of Montanari-Ramos.
“I dedicate this win to the whole team,” said
Toni Vilander. “Yesterday, the guys struggled a lot
because of Ortelli’s accident and they they had to work
late in the night to change my engine. I made a calm start
and after a few laps, I had already caught up the group of
GP2 cars. Then the Safety Car came out after the Ferrari 575
had an accident I immediately dived into pit lane to do the
driver change. They guys were fantastic as they were already
waiting for me and we took first place. Then Dirk drove an
impeccable stint and when I got back in the car to finish
the race, I concentrated on not making mistakes and calmly
managed the situation.”
“Simply fantastic,” added Dirk Muller. “I
could never have expected to win by a lap having started from
the back of the grid, but the AF Corse Motorola Team is made
up of real professionals and they did a perfect job of handling
the race strategy from the pit wall. I was a bit worried about
our choice of tyres at the start of the race when it was only
raining a little, but as usual, Michelin did a great job advising
us on the best tyre for the track conditions.”
|
