Brazilians cheer home win for Bernoldi and Negrao!
Photos: SRO Media
The large partisan Brazilian crowd went wild when Xandi Negrao took the chequered flag in the No. 2 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 to win Round 9 of the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship for himself and co-driver Enrique Bernoldi, who celebrated his first victory in the World Championship and his first GT win since Paul Ricard in 2009. Second place went to Darren Turner and Tomas Enge in the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9. The No. 7 Aston Martin led for the majority of the race but Negrao put Turner under immense pressure, forcing his way into the lead on lap 29. Turner held on to claim their second top three finish of the weekend, just ahead of the No. 13 Phoenix Racing/Carsport Corvette of Alex Margaritis and Marc Hennerici. Championship leaders Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels finished in ninth and now lead the title race by 28 points from Enge and Turner. The No. 5 Matech Ford GT finished out of the points despite a spirited fight up the field, ending the title aspirations of Thomas Mutsch.
It was Tomas Enge who held the lead from pole position as the 22 car grid thundered along the main straight into the first corner. Everyone made it around the Senna S with Peter Dumbreck in the No. 23 Sumo Power Nissan GT-R holding onto the rear of the leading Aston Martin, while Clivio Piccione in the No. 10 Hexis Aston Martin was being pressurised by the No. 2 Vitaphone Maserati of Enrique Bernoldi, with the Brazilian sweeping into third place on lap 2. Starting from the back of the grid, the No. 5 Matech Ford of Richard Westbrook was on the move early on, moving up four places in the first three laps and a further three places by lap 9 in his attempt to get ahead of the No. 1 Vitaphone Maserati of Andrea Bertolini. Bertolini was holding a points scoring position in ninth place, which became 10th when he was passed by the Triple H Team Hegersport Maserati of Daniel Serra.
As the pit window opened the leaders all came into the pits to hand over to their co-drivers. Darren Turner retained Enge's lead but it was Xandi Negrao who emerged in second place as the No. 23 Sumo Power Nissan GT-R of Michael Krumm dropped from second to fifth behind the Margaritis in the Phoenix Corvette and Hirschi in the Hexis Aston Martin. Turner\'s rear mirrors were filled by the Vitaphone Maserati as Negrao tried every trick in the book to get past the leading Aston Martin. On lap 29 Negrao saw Turner leave the door open in the twisty section of the Interlagos circuit and the Brazilian fans cheered as Negrao pushed the nose of the Maserati into the gap and barged his way past the Aston Martin. Both cars continued with the Maserati opening up a two second gap within the next three laps. Darren Turner held a two second gap to the third placed Corvette and which the top three cars maintained as the clock counted down.
At the chequered flag it was Xandi Negrao who scored the first win for the No. 2 Maserati in front of his home crowd. Second place was good enough to keep Darren Turner and Tomas Enge in the championship battle, but with an extra 30kg of success ballast to add to the 10kg the Aston Martin was carrying in Brazil, the pair admitted that their championship hopes were slim. Vitaphone Racing hold a comfortable 47 point lead in the Team Championship over Reiter with a maximum of 58 points available in Argentina.
