Andrea Montermini and Luca Filippi gave the Scuderia Villorba its second win of the year in Race 1 in the Nürburgring, in a day where the timetable was disrupted by the heavy fog that paralyzed the ‘Ring for the entire morning, reducing the two qualifying sessions to two 15-minute sessions and the race from 70 to 50 minutes. The Italian pair conducted a perfect race, despite the 30-second handicap, and beat the two V8 Racing Corvettes of Diederik Sijthoff-Bert longin and Miguel Ramos-Niki Pastorelli, strengthening their lead in the championships.
The McLarens MP4 12C of BhaiTech Racing put together a strong show in GTS, clinching their first win with a 1-2, Chris van der Drift-Luiz Razia preceding Rafael Suzuki-Giorgio Pantano. “After a somehow difficult start of the season, we are starting to understand the car and things are coming together” commented Keith Parmar from the Italian outfit. Third was the debuting second Porsche 911 R of Autorlando Sport, with Venezuela’s Emilio Di Guida and Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel.
At the start, it was Van der Drift taking the advantage from row 2 while there is contact in first corner between Talkanitsa jr, who braked late, and Seefried, but luckily without consequences. The McLaren led first lap but Van der Drift was passed by Montermini, and later by Ramos and Sijthoff, in lap 2. The New-Zealander was fourth, challenged by Seefried. Followed Suzuki, Lyons and Mavlanov in full fight, Tutumlu and Bontempelli, while there was a contact between Schirò (7th at the time) and Talkanitsa which ended the race of the Drivex Porsche. Gardel stopped in the pits since lap 1.
Montermini swiftly increased his lead up to 15 seconds, while in lap 9, Sijthoff passed team mate Ramos for second, with the Portuguese, Toril and Di Guida opening the driver change. Maleev and Toril were then fighting hardly for 10th, with Cordoni and Cameron doing the same for 11th.
After the pit stop, Bert Longin went into the lead with 5” advantage on Filippi, who catch up on the Belgian. At the beginning of lap 19, Filippi managed to pass Longin, making good use of the lapping of Talkanitsa, but the Belgian retook immediately the lead. After a close fight, the Italian passed for good a lap later. In the meantime, the BhaiTech McLarens of Razia and Pantano were 3rd and 5th ,sandwiching Pastorelli, and leading among GTS cars. Followed Griffin, De Marco, Seyffarth, Bleekemolen, Costantini, Deverikos (who sent Kogay into a spin and out of the race), Camathias, Ladygin, Beretta, Rosell and Lavio.
While Filippi cruised to victory ahead Longin, Pastorelli passed Razia in lap 23, with the two McLaren winning the GTS class and Bleekemolen piping De Marco for third in the last lap.
