Ettevõttest
UUDISED
Excellent pit stops help Nissan GT-Rs claim solid results in Navarra GT1 Qualifying Race 02.07.2011 08:00:00 - Uudised
Some excellent work by the team pit-crews and a strong collective performance by the GT-Rs in the second half of today's GT1 World Championship Qualifying Race in Navarra ensured that Nissan could leave the track relatively happy following on from what was a quite disastrous start to the afternoon's proceedings.
The no.21 Sumo Power GT shared by David Brabham and Jamie Campbell-Walter finished highest placed amongst the four Nissans in fourth place, and will actually start in third on tomorrow's Championship Race starting grid due to a five place grid penalty being applied to the no.37 Lamborghini that ended the race in 2nd place. The no.22 JRM of Peter Dumbreck and Richard Westbrook finished just outside the points in seventh, two places ahead of team-mates Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm in the no.23 car. Meanwhile, the no.20 Sumo Power GT of Enrique Bernoldi and Nick Catsburg was the only GT-R not to finish the race, retiring after running into trouble whilst working its way through the pack in the latter stages of the hour long race.
As has so often been the case in this season's GT1 World Championship, there was to be drama on the opening lap of the race when Michael Krumm, starting in the no.23 JRM, was pushed off the track by the no.41 Marc VDS Ford GT. This manoeuvre knocked the GT-R down from fourth, where it started after the morning's Qualifying session despite carrying 35kg of success ballast weight (applied to the car after the Championship Race victory last time out at Silverstone), to 15th place.
The other GT-Rs, starting eight (no.20), ninth (no.22) and tenth (no.21) on the grid after Qualifying, also lost places whilst trying to avoid the on track spin of the no.9 Belgian Racing Ford GT, ending lap one off the pace in ninth (no.20), tenth (no.22) and 12th (no.21) place respectively.
Apart from Westbrook overtaking Catsburg for ninth and Brabham and Krumm moving up one place each, there was to be little change in the GT-R's positions in the first half of the race as the opening of the pit window approached on 25 minutes, meaning good pit stops were vital for all four cars. Happily, the stops were just that, in particular that of the no.21 Sumo Power GT which emerged in sixth, moving up a further place to overtake the no.11 Corvette and claim fifth on its out-lap. Further back the field, more quick work by the team's pit crews had helped the GT-Rs rejoin the race in eighth (no.22 JRM), 11th (no.20 Sumo Power GT) and 12th (no.23 JRM).
It was shaping up to be a much better second half of the race for Nissan, with Dumbreck moving up to seventh in the no.22, and Bernoldi, in full flow, gaining a couple of places to move up to ninth in the no.20. However, the Brazilian was to suffer misfortune moving into the final quarter of the race, opting to pull into the gravel at a designated fire-point after seeing flames coming from the left hand side of his car
That left three Nissans in the race, and there was to be action involving two of them in the final stages as Luhr made a late push to move up two places to ninth in the no.23, having earlier gained a place due to Bernoldi's retirement, whilst Campbell-Walter made a daring passing move on the no.4 Hexis Aston Martin to finish in a strong fourth placed position.
Speaking afterwards, no.21 Sumo Power GT driver David Brabham said: "I'm really pleased with that result. Our strategy at the start was just to keep out of trouble on the first lap, and I was perhaps a bit too cautious, breaking hard three times in the opening minute or two alone. I then took a real risk in order to make a strong pass and move up a place, and after that there were no other real opportunities to move higher up the field.
"Once again, Jamie and I have to give a huge thank you to the pit crew for the amazing job they did in gaining us so many places, and it was great that Jamie could really capitalise and gain a further place to take fourth during his stint in the car. A very good result considering where we started and how far down the field we were at one point."
Brabham's team-mate, Jamie Campbell-Walter, added: "Firstly, I thought David did a great job to avoid the first lap traffic- that was the most important thing for us starting quite far back in the field, and he had a tough job on his hands. Secondly, it goes without saying that the pit crew deserve massive plaudits for the job they did, and I'm happy I was able to take advantage of their efforts and steal fourth away from the Aston on the back-straight late on
"Despite the great result, the car was struggling with high tyre pressure throughout my stint, so I had to be quite careful. If we can get that sorted for the Championship Race tomorrow, then I think we stand a really good chance of grabbing a place on the podium, and of course it's a massive bonus that we'll actually be starting in third place on the grid. Let's keep our fingers crossed!"
The Championship Race starts at 13h45 CEST tomorrow, and can be watched live on GT1 TV at http://www.gt1world.com/gt1tv .
2011 Nissan drivers
Sumo Power GT
Nissan GT-R No.20: Nick Catsburg (NL) & Enrique Bernoldi (Bra)
Nissan GT-R No.21: Jamie Campbell-Walter (GB) & David Brabham (Aus)
JR Motorsports
Nissan GT-R No.22: Peter Dumbreck (GB) & Richard Westbrook (GB)
Nissan GT-R No.23: Michael Krumm (Ger) & Lucas Luhr (Ger)
Current standings after round 6 (Navarra Qualifying Race) - Nissan teams/drivers in bold
Teams Championship
Position | Team name | Team nationality | Car | Points |
1 | Hexis AMR | France | Aston Martin DBR9 | 127 |
2 | All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport | Germany | Lamborghini Murcielago RS-V | 120 |
3 | JR Motorsports | Great Britain | Nissan GT-R | 116 |
4 | Young Driver AMR | Germany | Aston Martin DBR9 | 114 |
5 | Sumo Power GT | Great Britain | Nissan GT-R | 70 |
6 | Marc VDS Racing Team | Belgium | Ford GT Matech | 54 |
7 | Swiss Racing Team | Switzerland | Lamborghini Murcielago RS-V | 32 |
8 | Belgian Racing | Belgium | Ford GT Matech | 15 |
Drivers Championship
Position | Driver names | Nationalities | Car no. | Team | Points |
1 | Markus Winkelhock/ Marc Basseng | Germany/ Germany | 38 | All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport | 75 |
2 | Michael Krumm/ Lucas Luhr | Germany/ Germany | 23 | JR Motorsports | 70 |
3 | Andrea Piccini/ Christian Hohenadel | Italy/ Germany | 4 | Hexis AMR | 63 |
4 | Stefan Mucke/ Darren Turner | Germany/ Britain | 8 | Young Driver AMR | 57 |
5 | Clivio Piccione/ Stef Dusseldorp | Monaco/ Netherlands | 3 | Hexis AMR | 56 |
6 | Tomas Enge/ Alex Muller | Czech Republic/ Germany | 7 | Young Driver AMR | 53 |
7 | Mike Hezemans | Netherlands | 11 | Exim Bank Team China (Corvette Z06) | 46 |
8 | Dominic Schwager/Nicky Pastorelli | Germany/Italy | 37 | All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport | 40 |
9 | Peter Dumbreck/ Richard Westbrook | Britain/ Britain | 22 | JR Motorsports | 39 |
10 | Jamie Campbell-Walter/ David Brabham | Britain/ Australia | 21 | Sumo Power GT | 34 |
11 | Enrique Bernoldi | Brazil | 20 | Sumo Power GT | 33 |
12 | Maxime Martin | Belgium | 41 | Marc VDS Racing Team | 31 |
13 | Peter Kox/ Karl Wendlinger | Netherlands/ Austria | 5 | Swiss Racing Team | 31 |
14 | Nick Catsburg | Netherlands/ | 11 | Sumo Power GT /Exim Bank Team China (Corvette Z06) | 27 |
15 | Frederic Makowiecki | France | 41 | Marc VDS Racing Team | 26 |
16 | Warren Hughes | Great Britain | 20 | Sumo Power GT | 24 |
2011 Schedule
25-26 March Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, UAE
8-10 April Zolder, Belgium
6-8 May Algarve, Portugal
13-15 May Sachsenring, Germany
3-5 June Silverstone, UK
1-3 July Navarra, Spain
15-17 July Paul Ricard HTTT, France
2-4 September Ordos, China
21-23 October Curitiba, Brazil
4-6 November San Luis, Argentina