Christian Hohenadel took the chequered flag to record his and, teammate Daniel Keilwitz’s, second win of the 2010 season in a lights to flag victory during Round 7 of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Paul Ricard. Under the French summer sun the German crossed the line in the Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3 6.6 seconds ahead of championship rival Mike Parisy in the nr16 Graff Racing Corvette.
2007 FIA GT3 Champion Gilles Vannelet returned to the podium for the first time since 2008 when teammate Antoine Leclerc took the chequered flag in 3rd place at the wheel of the Muehlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R after a four way battle with Marco Holzer (Porsche), Edward Sandstrom (BMW) and Claudia Huertgen (BMW) for the second half of the 60-minute race.
Keilwitz and Hohenadel now hold a 44-point championship lead over Parisy and Lambotte. Round 8 of the FIA GT3 European Championship will take place on Sunday 4th of July at 11:20 (local time)
Daniel Keilwitz – nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3 – 1st Place
“The race was very good for me. I had a good start at the beginning, then the safety came out for four laps and after the restart, the safety car made it easier for me. I could drive at the front and the time was ticking by. After the restart, I kept control of the first position, made an early pitstop, and Christian did a great job and was very fast at the end. I’m really happy that we’ve won a second race this year. The tyres were okay, because of the safety car, I didn’t push too hard on the tyres. Otherwise they were really good.”
Christian Hohenadel – nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3 – 1st Place
“The temperature in the car isnt’ as cool as I’d wish. The race was okay for me; I got my stint in a leading position. I tried my best to stay in the front. Finally we made it. Very happy with this result, but although we have a good lead, there are 5 races left, and a lot can happen in 5 races. We have to stay very concentrated, and we might make it. We’ll see after this event.”
Joakim Lambotte – nr16 Graff Racing Corvette Z06R GT3 – 2nd Place
“For sure, we’d prefer to be in the first position, but we’ve made a great job with qualifying. They made a small gap at the restart and I couldn’t come back on them: I pushed very hard, but the car was quite hard to drive. So, I’m very happy to be on the podium. We made an early pitstop as well. IT was a bit boring, having four laps behind the safety car, but I enjoyed the race a lot, even if the temperature in the car is horrible, it’s way too hot. I enjoyed this race.”
Mike Parisy – nr16 Graff Racing Corvette Z06R GT3 – 2nd Place
“I tried to push very hard at the beginning of the race. It was very difficult because I had a lot of over-steer. I tried to keep contact with the leader, but I was having difficulties, so I just tried to keep hold of second place and the points for the championship. It’s not a very good position for us; we’re second, they’re leaders of the championship, but the championship is long, so we’ve got to keep contact and the fighting. The tyres were wearing out near the end so I didn’t take the kerbs during the end of the race, so my rhythm slowed a bit.”
Source:
Corvette Motorsport
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