Cesar cielo

The revised Audi R8 and Mercedes SLS AMG were the pace-setting cars at the GT3 European Championship's opening race weekend in Nogaro, France. Sainteloc Audi and Heico Mercedes scored a pole position and a win apiece across the two one-hour races. Race One The late withdrawal of Luxury Racing's pair of Ferrari 458s left the entry list at a disappointing 12 cars, but damp conditions for Sunday's first race meant even this modest turnout produced some entertaining battles. Sainteloc Audi R8 driver Marc Sourd capitalised on an early mistake from Heico's polesitter Max Buhk to snatch the lead in the early laps, and then had to spend almost all of his stint defending from the determined Mercedes SLS pilot. Behind the Sourd/Buhk battle, Giles Vannelet and Filip Sladecka were men on the move in their Rhino's Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardos. Vannelet passed Micheal Lyons' AF Corse Ferrari for fifth, but then lost out to his team-mate Sladecka while trying to attack Ni … [Read more...] about GT3 Europe: Wins for Sainteloc Audi and Heico Mercedes

Winning a one-hour sprint race after spinning on the first lap is no easy task, but that's exactly what Giuseppe Ciro and Gaetano Ardagna Perez managed in the first of the weekend's two GT3 European championship races at Zolder. Perez was caught out by wet conditions at the first corner and dropped to the back of the field at the start. But despite a drying track as the pit window approached, Perez's #50 AF Corse Ferrari was the only car in the 12-strong field to change from wet to slick tyres, and his co-driver Ciro was thus able to scythe his way up through the order in the second half of the race as other struggled to prevent their wet rubber overheating. Race Start Chaos Photo by: Ed Fahey Stefano Gai had started from pole position in the sister AF Corse Ferrari, and held on to his lead through the first corner, ahead of Cesar Campanico in the Novadriver Audi R8 and Dominik Baumann in the Nogaro race-winning Heico Gravity Charouz Mercedes SLS. Baumann pursued Campanico … [Read more...] about GT3 EUROPE: Tyre gamble pays off for Ciro and Ardagna-Perez

Max Buhk and Dominik Baumann enjoyed another serene victory in the first of the weekend's two GT3 European Championship races at Portimao in Portugal. The Heico-Gravity-Charouz Mercedes SLS duo led the race from lights to flag, while their team-mates Max Nilsson and Mika Vahamaki made it a 1-2 for the outfit. But their race was far less straightforward, as Nilsson was spun by Gaetano Ardagna-Perez in the AF Corse Ferrari 458 at turn four on the first lap. The incident put Nilsson to the back of the field, but he was undeterred and swiftly set about clawing back the lost ground and positions. Third-place starter David Mengsdorf, who had nearly surged his Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo into the lead off the grid, now found himself defending second place from a determined Michael Lyons in the other AF Corse Ferrari. On lap four, the young Briton squeezed ahead at the exit of turn three, and would retain second position to hand over to his team-mate Stefano Gai at the … [Read more...] about Another win for Buhk and Baumann in GT3 Europe

The Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini duo of Harri Proczyk and David Mengsdorf finally capitalised on the promise they've shown so far in the GT3 European Championship, with a win in the second of the weekend's two races at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal. Proczyk qualified the car in fourth place on the second row of the grid, but once the lights went out, he immediately surged into the lead. Race-one podium finisher Mika Vahamaki in the #2 Heico-Gravity-Charouz Mercedes SLS slid back from second on the grid to fourth, bringing up the rear of a four-car train that had Proczyk in the lead, race-one winner and #1 Mercedes driver Dominik Baumann in second and Gregory Guilvert in the Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 in third. Proczyk initially pulled out a bit of a gap, but the fast and determined Baumann was all over his back bumper by lap six. With the pit window rapidly approaching, Baumann eventually made a last-gasp dive under braking into turn five to clinch the lead. … [Read more...] about GT3 race two win for Proczyk/Mengsdorf in Lamborghini