After an exciting opening round at Silverstone a fortnight ago, the FIA GT3 European Championship last weekend went racing in a city for the very first time, the action taking place on the streets of Bucharest. With the track being new for everybody, all the drivers were on an equal footing, and there was no room for errors with a grid of over 40 cars taking part in the two races. "No-one has ever driven in Bucharest, so it’s even more open than usual," commented Diego Alessi prior to the races.

After the first two races, at Silverstone, two drivers stood out from the rest: Henri Moser and Gilles Vannelet, sharing the nr 38 Ferrari F430 GT3 entered by Loris Kessel Racing. After two wins from two races, Moser and Vannelet were firmly in charge of the championship classification, but they would be under pressure on an unforgiving track like Bucharest. According to Vannelet, "There are some weekends where everything goes perfectly, for no particular reason. We’ll have to see what happens in Bucharest, but there is no pressure on us. We especially do not want to be labelled as the favourites."

Safety Car, rain, overtaking… everything happened during this first race on the streets of Bucharest. It was a crazy race, very difficult and as it was expected, each mistake took important proportions, and when the rain was coming at the end, it was even more difficult for every driver. But Ian Khan and Stephane Daoudi managed to pass over all the difficulties, and win their first race of the season, adding one more victory for Ferrari. Three wins in three races, the Ferrari F430 GT3 seems to be a good winning weapon. In this race, Khan and Daoudi had a good strategy. Starting from 8th position, Ian Khan was 5th when the Safety car forced everybody to change driver at the same time, and then Stephane Daoudi did the rest, as Ian Khan explained: "I did not do much in that victory honestly… it is Stephane's race, he is the one who made it and I have to congratulate him." At the beginning of his stint, Stephane Daoudi was on a good pace, and managed to come back to third position, following the Championship leader, Henri Moser, in the Ferrari 430. Then the rain was coming and logically most of the drivers decided to put rain tyres on.
 

Most of them, but not all of them! Stephane Daoudi, after talking on the radio with his team manager, decided to stay on track: "He asked me how the track was, and if I wanted to put rain tyres on. And I said no, it will be OK… then I realised what I just said. I had few tricky moments, and I have to admit that the Safety Car helped us a lot. To win the race you also need luck sometimes." Ten minutes before the end of the race, the nr 24 BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin DBRS9 driven by Toni Seiler hit the wall. Frederic Makowiecki, in the nr 26 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9, could not avoid him, and both cars were badly damaged.

So behind the Safety Car, Stephane Daoudi and Ian Kahn won their first win of the season, ahead of Martin Bartek and Thomas Mutsch's nr 43 Matech Racing Ford GT. Helped by a good strategy with a very early pit stop to change driver, the Ford GT finished second, its best result so far. Third place for Henri Moser and Gilles Vannelet saw them score more important points, and consolidate their leading position in the FIA GT3 European Championship.

The second FIA GT3 European Championship race of the week-end was undecided until the chequered flag. To claim their first ever victory, Stefan van Campenhoudt and Romain Bera passed through all the potential traps, included difficult weather conditions, with heavy rain. After only four races, the Ford GT has now taken its first victory, a great satisfaction for the whole Matech Racing team. As usual under the rain, the Porsche cars were present, despite the tricky conditions. With the nr 5 Trackspeed car second; the nr 1 Tech9 third and the nr 4 Trackspeed fourth, the Porsches managed a great result in this race.