FIA GT1 World Championship
Navarra, Spain
October 23rd – 24th, 2010

The first FIA GT1 World Championship season is coming to an end. And after the eighth race at the new Circuito de Navarra in Spain the GT racing cars will leave the European continent at the end of November.

Surprisingly the Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S (REITER Engineering) did well at this peculiar track, which has many technically demanding turns and leaves little room for passing.

Christopher Haase (23, GER) and Peter Kox (46, NED) started in the free practice session on Saturday morning and set the top time. Haase/Kox held back in the pre-qualifying session at midday in order to use the regulated tyre sets economically.

The Reiter duo made it to qualifying sessions 2 und 3 without any problems. Kox started in the fight for the best time in the first session and qualified himself and Haase with P4 in Q2. Haase competed in the second session and reached the Top8 for Q3 comfortably by placing third. Kox reached P6 and the third row for the qualifying race on Sunday morning. “It was great for us to be able to compete in the third qualifying session, and our place offers us a good starting position,” says Christopher Haase.

Haase started in the qualifying race. “I had a very good start actually. However, the two cars in front of me were not able to push forward and I was forced to brake. A Sumo-Nissan and a Hexis-Aston Martin came forward on the left and on the right and I got stuck. That is how we entered the first right turn.” Haase was trapped door to door. The Nissan hit the Lambo in the door. The Aston Martin closed in and hit the Lamborghini as well. Race control penalized Haase with a stop and go penalty for the crash. „In our opinion it is not justified and requires clarification. Nonetheless, we did very well with P5.” Haase, in a three-way fight with two Ford GT’s, suddenly faced technical problems and lost power. A check of several engine data on the display did not show a looming engine failure. Haase stayed off the track and served his penalty shortly before the pit stop. Kox took over and came back into the pit again a bit later. A mechanic found a faulty ignition coil. Peter Kox got back on track after losing a considerable amount of places and finished the stint with place 17.

A talk with race control brought clarification. The decision makers admitted mistakes. Although useless for the result but important for future decisions, the talk rehabilitated Christopher Haase.

The championship race was already finished for Haase/Kox after the third turn of the first lap. “I got stuck in the field and could not escape. I touched with other cars and an Aston Martin drove into my rear wheel. It is a pity because we had a good start,” Peter Kox explained after his exit.

Christopher Haase did not get a chance to compete but the 23-year old will team up with Thomas Jäger in the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 for Team Black Falcon in the VLN long-distance championship (Nürburgring) next weekend.             
 
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