Hattrick For The AF Corse Motorola Ferrari
Show your support.
Buzz this article up.
May 20, 2007
Team AF Corse Motorola
The third round of the FIA GT championship ended with a third consecutive win for the AF Corse Motorola Team in Bucharest (Romania. )
The result came after a miserable Saturday of high drama after one car was too badly damaged by Ortelli to be used in the race, while on the sister car, the engine had to be changed and thus it was penalised and sent to the back of the grid, as it had not completed the qualifying session.
The race was therefore all about a climb up through the order for the Ferrari F430 GT driven by Dirk Muller and Toni Vilander, ending in another splendid victory in the GT2 class, beating the Porsches of Collard- Malucelli and Lieb-Felbemermayr Jnr. by a lap.
The conditions made for a very difficult race, as the weather changed from driving rain to light rain, with the start taking place behind the Safety Car. However, AF Corse Motorola did a good job in terms of strategy and scored an unexpected success.
For the record, the overall race win went to the Maserati of Bertolini-Piccini, followed by the Lamborghini of Bouchut-Mucke and the Maserati of Montanari-Ramos.
“I dedicate this win to the whole team, ” said Toni Vilander. “Yesterday, the guys struggled a lot because of Ortelli’s accident and they they had to work late in the night to change my engine. I made a calm start and after a few laps, I had already caught up the group of GP2 cars. Then the Safety Car came out after the Ferrari 575 had an accident I immediately dived into pit lane to do the driver change. They guys were fantastic as they were already waiting for me and we took first place. Then Dirk drove an impeccable stint and when I got back in the car to finish the race, I concentrated on not making mistakes and calmly managed the situation. ”
“Simply fantastic, ” added Dirk Muller. “I could never have expected to win by a lap having started from the back of the grid, but the AF Corse Motorola Team is made up of real professionals and they did a perfect job of handling the race strategy from the pit wall. I was a bit worried about our choice of tyres at the start of the race when it was only raining a little, but as usual, Michelin did a great job advising us on the best tyre for the track conditions.”
