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FIA GT1: Watch Tomas Enge take out the field this morning
FIA GT1: Crash takes out pole sitter All-Inkl Lamborghini

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 10:49 AM PDT

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FIA GT1: Watch Tomas Enge take out the field this morning

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 10:30 AM PDT

Enough said.

DTM: Timo Scheider drives through field to win at Adria

FIA GT1: Crash takes out pole sitter All-Inkl Lamborghini

Posted: 26 Mar 2011 06:34 AM PDT

FIAGT1 All-Inkl Lamborghini

Ridiculous start to the FIA GT1 season. Tomas Enge missed his breaking point, hitting the no41 Ford GT an spun. This resulted in a huge chain reaction which led the no37, ultra fast, pole sitting All-Inkl Lamborghini Murcielago LP 760 R-SV to slam into the Aston Martin. Game over with not one lap completed. We’ve never been fans of Enge’s since his days of ALMS.

Congrats to Maxime Martin and Frederic Makowiecki for their win. Complete race report after the jump.

Ford Marc VDS Racing’s Maxime Martin and Frederic Makowiecki claimed a hard-earned victory in today’s qualifying race, resisting heavy pressure from the No. 22 Nissan JRM to triumph in the first race of the season.

FIAGT1, Ford VDS, Maxime Martin, Frederic Makowiecki

Racing together for the first time, the duo started from second and held position until the pitlane opened, when an excellent stop by the Marc VDS team allowed them to jump into the lead.

They came under severe pressure for the duration of the second half of the race, but remained composed throughout and held on to claim a maiden GT1 win. Nissan meanwhile celebrated as it occupied the next three slots, with the No. 23 JRM and No. 20 Sumo Power GT-Rs following the No. 22 JRM home.

“This is our first race together, so it’s a fantastic result,” Maxime Martin said. “The team did a very good job in the pit stops, and we are very happy with this result.”

FIAGT1 Abu Dhabi crash

There was drama at the start of the race as the No. 7 Aston Martin Young Driver car of Tomas Enge and Alex Muller missed its breaking point and tapped the inside of the No. 41 Ford, before spinning on the exit of turn one.

That caused a chain reaction in the field as first the No. 37 All-Inkl car – demoted five places from the pole Nicky Pastorelli and Dominik Schwager claimed in qualifying – and then the No. 47 Corvette DKR made contact with Enge’s Aston Martin, ruling all three cars out of the race.

As the field reassembled it was the No. 8 Aston Martin Young Driver of Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner which set about establishing an early lead, with the No. 41 Ford Marc DVS second and the No. 22 Nissan JRM in third.

The order remained consistent at the front until the pit stop window opened on lap 12, when disaster befell the No. 8 Aston Martin as a slow pit stop dropped them behind the Ford GT, before a problem with the left-front tyre caused them to retire completely from the race.

FIAGT1, Abu Dhabi

The No. 22 Nissan meanwhile had opted to stay out one lap longer, and the move almost paid dividends as it rejoined the track side by side with the No. 41 Ford Marc VDS. A frantic battle for position ensued over the next series of corners, with Maxime Martin eventually emerging in the lead but under severe pressure in the Ford.

That pressure remained for the duration of the race, with the gap between the lead two cars only exceeding one second on the penultimate lap.

There were similarly enthralling battles throughout the field, particularly at the start as a five way battle for fourth raged between Nissan, Corvette and Lamborghini. The No. 20 and No. 23 Nissan GT-Rs eventually came to the fore, but there was late drama as Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm in the No. 23 dived down the inside to snatch third from their sister car of Enrique Bernoldi and Ricardo Zonta.

Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp finished fifth in the No. 9 Aston Martin Young Driver, ahead of Lamborghini All-Inkl’s Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng and Corvette DKR’s Mike Hezemans and Nicky Catsburg – who completed an impressive 360 spin when fighting for position in the early stages of the race.

Eighth meanwhile went to the No. 21 Nissan Sumo Power GT-R of David Brabham and Jamie Campbell-Walter, the duo fighting back from problems at their pit stop to make up two places in the final seven laps.

Qualifying Race
Pos	Car	Class	Drivers	Car	Time	Laps	Gap	Avg speed
1	41	GT1	Maxime Martin / Frederic Makowiecki	Ford GT Matech	1:00:11.256	31		69,93
2	22	GT1	Peter Dumbreck / Richard Westbrook	Nissan GT-R	1:00:12.732	31	1.476	70,42
3	23	GT1	Lucas Luhr / Michael Krumm	Nissan GT-R	1:00:29.325	31	18.069	69,93
4	20	GT1	Enrique Bernoldi / Ricardo Zonta	Nissan GT-R	1:00:32.770	31	21.514	69,61
5	3	GT1	Clivio Piccione / Stef Dusseldorp	Aston Martin DB9	1:00:33.716	31	22.460	70,26
6	38	GT1	Markus Winkelhock / Marc Basseng	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:00:34.305	31	23.049	70,09
7	11	GT1	Mike Hezemans / Nicky Catsburg	Corvette Z06	1:00:49.084	31	37.828	68,81
8	21	GT1	David Brabham / Jamie Campbell-Walter	Nissan GT-R	1:00:54.893	31	43.637	70,75
9	4	GT1	Christian Hohenadel / Andrea Piccini	Aston Martin DB9	1:00:59.831	31	48.575	70,26
10	5	GT1	Karl Wendlinger / Peter Kox	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:01:00.710	31	49.454	68,18
11	40	GT1	Marc Hennerici / Bas Leinders	Ford GT Matech	1:01:07.035	31	55.779	70,26
12	10	GT1	Martin Matzke / Milos Pavlovic	Ford GT Matech	1:01:19.133	31	1:07.877	69,77
13	6	GT1	Max Nilsson / Jiri Janak	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	1:01:20.122	31	1:08.866	67,42
14	9	GT1	Antoine Leclerc / Fabien Giroix	Ford GT Matech	1:02:00.959	31	1:49.703	69,44
15	8	GT1	Stefan Mücke / Darren Turner	Aston Martin DB9	30:35.811	15	29:35.445	70,42
16	7	GT1	Alex Müller / Tomas Enge	Aston Martin DB9	3:02.716	1	57:08.540