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The
Maserati MC12 was awarded with a 1-2 finish at
Budapest over the weekend with the Vitaphone
racing entry of Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels
claiming the win ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi
and Matteo Bobbi in Budapest after the
first-across-the-line Saleen was excluded. The
Budapest City Challenge race was
held at the Hungaroring racetrack and the result
thus allowed Maserati, its drivers as well as
the Vitaphone team to continue to lead all the FIA GT
Championship rankings.
The
result came at the conclusion of an
exciting, hard-fought race whose
main protagonists were the
Maseratis. After losing Alex
Müller's MC12 during the fourth lap due
to an accident that occurred at the
first bend, the two other Maseratis
kept their adversaries on their
toes, even holding the first places
mid-race.
Bertolini's pit stop at lap 28 and
Pier Guidi's at lap 22 caused a new
overall order and by the time the first hour
of the race had gone by, the MC12s
were taking up second place with
Bartels and third with Bobbi.
However, the German driver was
penalised with a drive through for
exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane. This, once the
penalty was paid at lap 36, saw him slide to
third position.
The pace of the two Modenese
cars, now behind Wendlinger and Sharp's Saleen, was nonetheless steady
thanks also to the work carried out
during the free practices. It was
then that the team decided against
changing tyres during the second pit
stops, occurring at lap 49 for
Bartels and lap 54 for Bobbi.
At the end of the race, however,
the MC12 driven by Alessandro Pier
Guidi - in second place at the time
- was forced to slow down because of
the vibrations already felt during
the qualifying practices and the
warm-up, dropping the car behind Bertolini.
At the end the Italian driver was
nevertheless able to defend his
third place from the attack of
Enrique Bernoldi's Corvette, by mere
481 thousandths.
The
chequered flag celebrated
race winning success for Wendlinger
and Sharp,
Bertolini and Bartels crossed the
line in second place
(despite carrying over 100 kg of
ballast on board) while their
Vitaphone team mates Pier Guidi and Bobbi
come home in third place. However
once the stewards of the meeting
threw out the winning Saleen, the
Maserati's moved up the order one
place each to claim a 1-2 finish and
strengthen their title leads in the
drivers', manufacturers'' and teams'
categories.
"We were aware
that by having a car with over 100
kg ballast on board we wouldn't have
much of a chance to win," commented
Bartels after the finish of the race
but before the revised results were
announced. "Getting
second place was, to be frank,
unexpected. During the free
practices we had worked a lot to
prepare a balanced vehicle that
could enable us to compensate for
ballast weight. In this case,
Andrea's and my experience helped us
take home very important points. It
has been a fantastic weekend for the
entire Vitaphone Racing Team."
"I am
extremely happy with my return to
the FIA GT: after the second place
at Spa, this return at the podium
gives me high hopes for the next
round at Portimao," said Pier Guidi
before he learned that the #33 car
would move up to second place. "We could have
ended up second today but during the
last part of the race the car's
front vibrations, which had appeared
during the qualifying practices and
during the warm-up, reappeared.
Unfortunately it was really
difficult driving under those
conditions. Before this, the car had
performed perfectly, was very fast,
and I thank the team for this."
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