The Maserati powered Gillet Vertigo raced to G2 class victory on Sunday afternoon in the FIA GT Championship round at Monza (above), the first win since the Belgian built sports car switched to using the Modenese V8 engine.

The Maserati powered Gillet Vertigo raced to G2 class victory on Sunday afternoon in the FIA GT Championship round held at the high speed Monza circuit, its first win since the Belgian built sports car switched to using the Modenese V8 engine. This was the cars second race since the previous Alfa Romeo V6 units were discarded. The team's two Belgian drivers, Renaud Kuppens and Bas Leinders, steered the car to 24th overall after a solid race.

Unlike the rest of the weekend the race on the high speed Monza track took place in completely dry conditions. After putting the Gillet Vertigo onto pole in the G2 class on Saturday afternoon Kuppens was the starting driver on the #101; however due to the mixed weather conditions on Saturday during qualifying the GT2, G2 and GT1 cars were quite mingled up on the grid. Kuppens wisely decided to let the faster GT1’s go and dropped to the back of the field after a couple of laps, but once the more powerful GT1 cars all got passed the V8 Maserati powered Vertigo Kuppens picked up a regular pace.

Together with the GT1 cars, the Konopka G2 Saleen overtook Kuppens and moved into the lead in G2, but the Vertigo driver was in no danger of losing any more spots in G2 as he was lapping much quicker than the GTO Moslers. After a first stint of around 45 minutes Kuppens came to the pit from 22nd place overall in the race. After a rather long stop Leinders rejoined in 26th and second overall in G2. Like his team mate, Leinders was able to maintain a steady pace, lapping only a few tenths slower than Kuppens.

At the one hour mark the Konopka Saleen, leader in G2 at that point in the race, brought out the yellow flags in the famous Parabolica turn after Sean Edwards stalled the car on track. The retirement of the Saleen was good news for Belgian Racing, which took over the top spot in G2 again. Without any problems Leinders completed his part of the job and reappeared in the pit lane again with 25 minutes to go for the second mandatory pit stop of the afternoon. Kuppens took over again in the cockpit, rejoining in 24th position, from where he brought the Vertigo home for its maiden win in G2 this year.

Belgian Racing can look back to a good week-end in Monza. Despite not having the most powerful engine, the Vertigo managed to stay close to the GT2 cars and successfully outpaced the Moslers, showing the excellent aerodynamic capacities of the Vertigo.5.