NEWS

FIA GT1 2011: Sachsenring Championship Race Report

gt1 c6r 2011 china

Christian Hohenadel and Andrea Piccini won the main event at the Sachsenring round of the FIA GT1 World Championship for the French Hexis Aston Martin team. Hohenadal took the lead of the championship race on lap 10 from fellow Aston driver Stefan Mucke in the best of the Young Driver AMR entries and extended his lead to 3.3 seconds by the time he pitted. Piccini emerged from the pitstop sequence in the middle of the race with a six-second lead that never came under threat.

It was a dramatic turnaround for Hohenadel and Piccini, who started the qualifying race from the back of the grid after Piccini crashed in the first segment of the three-part qualifying procedure. They finished fifth in the first race, a result that owed a lot to another super-fast Hexis pitstop, and then benefited from a first-corner accident that promoted Hohenadel straight to second.

"There was a big mess at the first corner and suddenly I was second," said Hohenadel. "The car felt good, so I pushed and was able to pass Mucke. I then pushed again to build a gap." Second place went to Dominik Schwager and Nicky Pastorelli in the best of the All-Inkl Lamborghinis. Schwarger passed Mucke for second shortly after Hohenadel took the lead, but a quicker stop by the Hexis team gave Pastorelli too much to do over the second half of the race.

The two Sumo Power Nissans finished fourth and fifth in the hands of Warren Hughes and Enrique Bernoldi and David Brabham and Jamie Campbell-Walter respectively. Mike Hezemans and Nicky Catsburg claimed sixth in the Selleslagh-run Team China Chevrolet. Pole starter Maxime Martin collided with fellow front row man Stef Dusseldorp at the first corner. Marc VDS driver Martin claimed he had been pushed into the Hexis Aston by Mucke.

Mike Hezemans- #11 Exim Bank Team China C6R:

“The race was good, the car was good on new tyres but then towards the end we struggled with understeer on new tyres – like a lot of cars. We were a little bit quicker than the Nissan, especially at the beginning, but you cannot pass, it’s too difficult on this track. The pace was really good on new tyres and quite good on old. I should have been on pole (Saturday), and then the weekend looks a lot different – that’s the main problem.”

Results - 42 laps:

Pos  Drivers                  Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Hohenadel/Piccini        Hexis Aston           1h00m27.349s
 2.  Schwager/Pastorelli      All-Inkl Lamborghini      + 2.523s
 3.  Mucke/Turner             Young Driver Aston        + 4.218s
 4.  Hughes/Bernoldi          Sumo Power Nissan        + 22.861s
 5.  Brabham/Campbell-Walter  Sumo Power Nissan        + 23.547s
 6.  Hezemans/Catsburg        China Corvette           + 23.867s
 7.  Westbrook/Dumbreck       JRM Nissan               + 24.287s
 8.  Leinders/Hennerici       Marc VDS Ford            + 25.272s
 9.  Luhr/Krumm               JRM Nissan               + 26.477s
10.  Clairay/Leclerc          Belgian Ford             + 29.419s
11.  Dusseldorp/Piccione      Hexis Aston              + 55.554s

Retirements:

     Winkelhock/Basseng       All-Inkl Lamborghini       19 laps
     Martin/Makowiecki        Marc VDS Ford               9 laps
     Ickx/Nygaard             Belgian Ford                2 laps
     Enge/Muller              Young Driver Aston          0 laps
     Wendlinger/Kox           Swiss Lamborghini           0 laps
     Nilsson/Janak            Swiss Lamborghini           0 laps