Three rounds, three different winners. The 2008 season of the FIA GT Championship has got off to an excellent start, with Phoenix Racing becoming the third team to savour victory in GT1, after Jetalliance in Silverstone and SRT in Monza. With only two cars so far managing to finish on the podium twice, the points are extremely close.
SRT’s Bouchut/Maassen share the top of the leader-board with Bartels/Bertolini, while Adria winners Gollin/Hezemans are just a point behind. In GT2, AF Corse, Champion for the past two years, claimed its second win in Adria, to put Ferrari one ahead in its perennial battle with Porsche. Vilander and Bruni have a strong nine-point lead, ahead of their team-mates Biagi and Montanari.
For the fourth round of the season, the FIA GT Championship heads north, to the familiar surroundings of the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, in Germany. This will be the ninth time that the Championship will set up its paddock in Oschersleben, since it became the first international series to race at the track in 1998. A number of current drivers were in contention back then – Bartels, Bouchut and Wendlinger, to name just three, while GT2 rivals Davies and Biagi where then competing in the FIA F3000 International competition which ran in the same meeting.
Back to the present, and the prospect of a packed meeting with plenty of exciting races. As well as the two-hour FIA GT race on Sunday, the event will include two rounds of the FIA GT3 European Championship. With grids of over 40 cars, including 11 models from 10 manufacturers, all competing in a single class, the level of competition is unparalleled.
In Monza, qualifying showed just how well-balanced the cars are, with the top seven places filled by seven different makes. After the power circuits of Silverstone and Monza, it will be interesting to see how the cars adapt to Oschersleben.
The FIA GT3 European Championship last visited the track in 2006, when Dodge and Aston claimed the wins. The Ford GT has won all the races so far this season, giving Khan and Mutsch the points lead ahead of their team-mates, double Monza victors Mortimer and Ellis. It will be interesting to see if the twists and turns of the German circuit will bring about a change.
The GT4 European Cup raced at Oschersleben last year, in its inaugural season. Bigger and better this year, the new category will be back with an improved race format, designed to give the non-professional drivers more track time and a variety of formats.
In 2007, future Champion Eric de Doncker took his first win in Oschersleben. He is currently leading the 2008 classification, and after a great weekend in the rain in Monza, will surely be hoping for equally good results in better weather conditions !
Single-seater action in Oschersleben will be provided by the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, a popular and successful proving ground for the star drivers of the future.
For those competing in the FIA GT Championship, Oschersleben is also the last race before the summer highlight of the Total 24 Hours of Spa. With the traditional test day held on the Tuesday following Oschersleben, many teams will be starting to prepare for the endurance race, as well as announcing their additional drivers. An exciting time of the year, and Oschersleben is certain to deliver another thrilling round of the 2008 season.
- Jacquie GROOM, FIA -
photos will be on automobilsport.com under PHOTOS - FIA GT
