Nogaro’s
Paul Armagnac circuit over the weekend hosted the first
round of the FIA GT1 World Championship, which,
organised by SRO, will run this season over ten rounds
with eighteen cars taking part representing nine
manufacturers.
Ferrari’s debut with the revised GT1 championship (which
now features GT3 category cars) did not bring the hoped
for results, following Toni Vilander’s promising pole in
Saturday's qualifying session. Both legs were won by
Laurens Vanthoor and Stephane Ortelli ahead of
team-mates Frank Stippler and Oliver Jarvis in the WRT
Audi.
The two AF Corse cars were not competitive enough in the
race, partly because of the difficult weather conditions
which meant the very damp track limited the cars’
potential. Fifth (Toni Vilander-Filip Salaquarda) and
tenth (Enzo Ide- Francesco Castellacci) in the
Qualifying Race; fifth (Enzo Ide - Francesco Castellacci)
and sixth (Toni Vilander - Filip Salaquarda) in the
Championship Race: that was the outcome of the long
Easter weekend for the Ferrari 458s of the AF Corse
squad.
In contrast to the lack of results in GT1, AF Corse did
better in the FIA GT3 series, also at Nogaro. The
reigning champions entered two cars and in Race 1
Michael Lyons and Stefano Gai made it to second while in
the final leg they crossed the line third, behind the
other AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Gaetano Ardagna
Perez and Giuseppe Cirò, who finished in the silver
medal position in race 2.
The next round of the
FIA GT1 World Championship and the European FIA GT3
series take place on 22 April at the Zolder circuit in
Belgium.
