Maserati Extends World Championship Lead

Maserati has extended its lead in the FIA GT1 World Championship with a sixth  place for the Bartels/Bertolini duo in their Maserati MC12 in the Nurnburgring round at the weekend (29 August 2010) which is sufficient to enable them to extend their lead to 14 points.

 After starting out from tenth place, Maserati MC12 no. 1, driven by Bertolini, was able to advance three positions right after the starting line until he reached fifth. Going fast, Bartels continued to push the car to gain more ground, but his maneuver was limited due to rules in force regarding the car’s weight and restrictor plates.

 ”The rules penalize Maserati MC12s, especially when accelerating, making it really hard to overtake,” said Bartels at the end of the race.

 ”I struggled with that up to the end; maybe I could have gotten a fifth place, but at the last lap I saw that Stefan Muecke was set on overtaking me and I let him do it thinking I should reach the finish line without compromising the result, so I did not take further risks. It was a tough weekend, but despite it all we still gained precious points for the classification. We have an advantage, but other adversaries have become dangerous, so we have to be well prepared for the next race in Algarve”.

Vitaphone Racing Team’s other Maserati, Bernoldi/Ramos’s no. 2, came in 12th position, penalized by a collision with Ford no. 5 while fighting for 9th place. After seeing the maneuver once more, race officials decided to impose a drive-through penalty on Westbrook.

Longin/Pier Guidi’s no. 34 performed well. Despite starting out 21st due to an accident during qualifying they finished in ninth place, with the Italian driver doing the fastest lap of the race: the 17th in 1:58.370.

“After Saturday’s collision during the Qualifying Race, our mechanics did a great repair job, giving us back a perfect car,” explains Guidi.

“We are satisfied because we were able to recover extraordinarily well: from 21st to 9th place. I’m sure that if the accident in the qualifying race had not occurred, we would have reached one of the highest positions”.

The two German drivers, Mueller/Heger, were not lucky. They reached the finish line 20th in their Maserati MC12 no. 33, slowed down by a collision with an adversary at the first corner on the first lap.

The next race is scheduled for 19 September in Algarve, Portugal.