NEWS
FIA GT1 2010: Nurburgring Qualifying Race Report
Written By: Gary Watkins
Tomas Enge and Darren Turner dominated the qualifying race at the Nurburgring round of the FIA GT1 World Championship aboard their Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9.
Enge briefly dropped to third at the start after being tapped into a half-spin, but the Czech driver was quickly back to second and needed less than three laps to take the lead from Alex Margaritis in the Phoenix/Carsport Corvette.
Such was the advantage of the best of the Aston Martins at the Nurburgring that Enge was able to pull out a four-second lead before the pitstop window opened in the middle of the one-hour race. Turner resumed with a similar gap over the Phoenix/Carsport car, now driven by Marc Hennerici, only to return to the pits three laps later for wet tyres when it started to rain. The Briton retook the lead with six laps to go when he passed Andrea Bertolini in the best of the Vitaphone Maseratis, which was still on slick tyres.
"It was one of those races where you had to keep an eye on your mirrors and just try to stay on the track," said Turner. Margaritis and Hennerici ended up second, just over 10s behind the winning Aston and a similar margin ahead of the third-placed Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago driven by Christophe Haase and Peter Kox. The Bertolini Maserati, which was started by Michael Bartels, faded to 10th at the finish.
Alex Margaritis, Phoenix Racing Carsport Corvette No.13
"The start was good for me, we were coming out of the last chicane and I saw a gap on the inside so I went for it, it was a little bit tricky but I made it and I'm thankful nothing happened there. "Going into the first corner was hard, I was trying to keep up the speed of the cars around me but I had to let them go. I tried to slot into third or fourth position while Michael Bartels was pushing. After that the race was easy for me, I changed over with Marc [Hennerici] and he managed to get us into second."
Marc Hennerici, Phoenix Racing/Carsport Corvette, No.13
"After I got in the car I pretty much had to come straight back to the pits because of the rain. I got the call that there was dark clouds when I was behind the Aston Martin and we got the wet tyres on. "With the wet tyres on I was going well, taking care like everybody else but I managed to catch Bartels reasonably easily and take the place.
"Second place was great for me so I didn't push too hard to catch the Aston Martin, tomorrow should be good for us the car is pretty good in the rain but also in dry conditions so I'm really happy."
