The fifth round of the FIA GT championship will be held at the German circuit of Oschersleben. This will be the eighth time the track has hosted a Gran Turismo race.
The teams made the transfer to the Motorsport Arena straight after testing for the past few days at Spa-Francorchamps. The official test session was arranged to prepare the cars for the 24 Hour that will be run on 29 July.
The teams that will field Maseratis will head into the Oschersleben meet in confident mood given that the Modenese cars have scored three wins in the last three editions. The Oschersleben circuit suits the MC12 and the experience gained by the Trident drivers will also benefit the teams.
The Vitaphone Racing Team goes into Oschersleben holding an 18 point lead over their direct competitors in the Teams’ championship; they have 40 points. Thomas Biagi, who will pair up with Michael Bartels, is in number one spot in the Drivers’ standings. Here, things are much tighter with eleven drivers bunched just three points apart. These include the two Vitaphone Racing Team drivers, Miguel Ramos and Christian Montanari. The Ramos-Montanari crew is improving race on race but will have to cope with an extra 50kg assigned by the Federation following their second place at Monza. Maserati also tops the Manufacturers’ Cup with 56 points.
Playteam Sarafree will be hoping for good things from Oschersleben in the shape of its two MC12 crews, Bertolini/Piccini and Giannoccaro/Pier Guidi. Andrea Bertolini can be considered an expert on this circuit having won on it three times and come second once between 2003 and 2006. The defending FIA GT champion and his team mate will have 40kg of added weight that, on a track like Monza, proved to be especially difficult.
JMB Racing has entered two Maserati MC12s in the Citation Cup. In the driving seat will be Gosse/Kutemann and Macari/Aucott with the latter in with a chance of catching the Citation leaders as they are only six points off the pace. Antoine Gosse, the Frenchman from Rouen, will replace Dirk Waaijenberg, the man usually found alongside Peter Kutemann.
Free practice will be run tomorrow, Saturday 7 July, from 9.00 to 10.20 and from 12.25 to 13.45 with the qualifying session programmed for 17.05. The 30’ warm up will get underway at 8.30 on Sunday morning with the race itself timed for 13.15 to 15.15. You can catch up with all the action live on Sky Sport 2, channel 202, from 13.00.
Vitaphone Racing Team (GER)
1 Michael Bartels (GER)
Thomas Biagi (ITA)
2 Miguel Ramos (POR)
Christian Montanari (RSM)
Playteam Sarafree (IT)
11 Andrea Bertolini (ITA)
Andrea Piccini (ITA)
12 Giambattista Giannoccaro (ITA)
Alessandro Pier Guidi (ITA)
JMB Racing (MC)
15 Antoine Gosse (FRA)
Peter Kutemann (NED)
16 Joe Macari (ENG)
Ben Aucott (ENG)
Circuit lenght:: 3696 m
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