All-Inkl Lamborghini claims maximum points in Belgium.
Photos: SRO Media
Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng made it a perfect weekend for the All-Inkl.com Muennich Motorsport team with a lights to flag victory in the Championship Race during Round 2 of the FIA GT1 World Championship at Zolder in Belgium. Winkelhock brought the Lamborghini home nearly 10-seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Andrea Piccini in the Hexis AMR Aston Martin DB9. The Italian was put in a race winning position after another lightening pitstop by the Hexis team which enabled the Aston Martin to move from ninth to second. Piccini held off an early challenge by Tomas Enge in the Young Driver Aston Martin, who in turn had to defend from Nicky Catsburg in the Exim Bank Team China Corvette. Catsburg was caught and passed right on the line by the charging Karl Wendlinger, who secured fourth place and the Swiss Racing Team's best finish in the FIA GT1 World Championship.
A torrid start saw a collision between the two Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-Rs which was triggered by the DKR Engineering Corvette No. 47. In fact it was a trying day for the Nissan quartet with only the No. 23 JRM car finishing the race. The No.37 Lamborghini of Dominik Schwäger and Nicky Pastorelli, which had set pole in Abu Dhabi, was also an early casualty, while the No. 6 Lamborghini of Jiri Janak and Max Nilsson wasn't able to start the race due to an oil pump problem.
As the field came through the first lap it was the No. 38 Lamborghini in the lead from the No. 11 Exim Bank Team China Corvette of Mike Hezemans and Nicky Catsburg. The field remained tightly bunched however with less than four seconds covering the top eight after five laps, and the order condensed further three laps later when the Safety Car came out. Peter Dumbreck had dived down the inside of the No. 40 Marc VDS Ford GT and looked to have the line, but spun as the Ford refused to cede ground and was collected by the helpless No. 9 Belgian Racing Ford GT - the resulting damage causing a lengthy Safety Car spell.
With the race resuming just one lap before the pit lane window opened, pit stops were crucial and Hexis again pulled off a superb stop to help the No. 4 Aston Martin of Andrea Piccini and Christian Hohenadel vault from ninth to second. All-Inkl matched Hexis' superb 49-second stop however, and the No. 38 Murcielago emerged with a healthy lead which it proceeded to build in the closing stages, eventually coming nine seconds clear to give the team its second consecutive victory in Zolder. The No. 11 Corvette had been second after the pit stops but was picked off firstly by the No. 4 Hexis car and then by its sister No. 7 Young Driver Aston Martin - with the two DB9s rounding out the podium.
The Corvette tried to respond and exerted huge pressure on the Aston, only to fade badly in the closing stages and fall into the clutches of the No. 5 Swiss Racing Lamborghini - which claimed fourth on the run down to the chequered flag, 0.025s ahead of Catsburg in the Corvette. Hexis' No. 3 DB9 claimed sixth ahead of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke in the No. 8 Young Driver Aston Martin, which had to work extremely hard to keep the No. 41 Marc VDS Ford GT of Frederic Makowiecki and Maxime Martin at bay. Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr were the top Nissan pairing in the No. 23 JRM GT in ninth, with the No. 40 and No. 10 Ford GTs rounding out the finishers.
Coming out of Zolder, Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock lead the Drivers' Standings on 49 points ahead of Stef Dusseldorp and Clivio Piccione on 36 points, while the Hexis Aston Martin squad lead All-Inkl in the Team's Standings by 66 points to 49. GT1 World next heads to Portimao, Portugal, in four weekends' time for the third round of the 2011 championship.
