After Abu Dhabi, Great Britain and the Czech Republic, the FIA GT1 World Championship is heading to France. And more particularly the south of France, and the beautiful, distinctive Paul Ricard HTTT circuit, at Le Castellet. The glorious sight of the magnificient GT1 cars heading round the challenging circuit, encircled by blue and red stripes, should herald the start of the summer, and hopefully the sun will accompany the new World Championship throughout the weekend.

After three rounds, Matech Competition drivers Romain Grosjean and Thomas Mutsch lead the Drivers classifications after their Brno win, while Vitaphone Racing Team lead the Teams, their drivers Bartels and Bertolini being the only ones to have scored points in each race so far. But the Paul Ricard has a reputation as a Corvette circuit, so who will emerge victorious on Sunday ? There will be plenty of French interest, with Stéphane Sarrazin racing for Hexis AMR, Olivier Panis joining Matech Competition, and Christophe Bouchut returning to All Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport.

As well as two exciting one-hour FIA GT1 World Championship races, the Paul Ricard HTTT welcomes the FIA GT3 European Championship, which is moving into the second half of the 2010 season. Two weeks ago in Jarama, victory went to Team Rosberg’s Audi R8 LMS and to the Need for Speed BMW Z4. But the Corvette teams and drivers are leading the points, after a dominant start to the season. Callaway’s Hohenadel and Keilwitz lead by 31 points – but with 25 for a win, nothing is decided yet.

The full timetable will also include two races from the GT4 European Cup, and three from the exciting Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo. The GT4 European Cup has raced in Silverstone and Spa so far this season, setting up a close battle between the Aston Martin GT4 cars of Paul Meijer (Rhesus Racing) and Michael Mallock (RJN Motorsport), who have shared this season’s wins. As for the roar of the powerful Lamborghini cars, Peter Kox leads the points. The Dutch driver will have a busy weekend, as he also competes for Reiter in the FIA GT1 World Championship.

The weekend is more than just racing, with plenty of off-track entertainment for spectators, autograph sessions, grand prix simulators, flights over the track in a helicopter and plenty of beautiful GT cars on display, as well as a play area for children. Let the sun shine on !


Photos and news used with permission from the FIA GT1 World Championship.

Due to the Iceland volcanic disruption the European airspace crisis has caused disruption to businesses around the world, including the FIA GT1 World Championship. Following the opening round of the championship at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi flights to the majority of European destinations were canceled due to the volcanic ash cloud. The Championship promoter SRO has worked tirelessly to find a solution to the problem of getting teams and their equipment back to Europe. Today the second of two cargo planes with the race cars and equipment has arrived in Luxemburg as planned and two charter flights to Europe have been booked to fly the teams and the organizers to Vienna, which will be arriving in the Austrian capital on Thursday morning.

“This situation has been extremely difficult but we have managed to pull all the different elements together to get the cars and teams to where they need to be so our next event at Silverstone can go ahead,” said Patricia Kiefer, Chief Operating Officer for SRO. “The cars are now back in Europe and the teams will arrive tomorrow; they will be able to pick up their cars and equipment before the weekend. The FIA GT1 World Championship races at Silverstone on 1/2 May will now be able to go ahead barring any further problems caused by mother nature.”

The Silverstone Supercar Event is taking place at Silverstone on 1st and 2nd May, with Round 2 of the FIA GT1 World Championship racing for the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy. The meeting also features the open rounds of the FIA GT3 European Championship, the GT4 European Cup and the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series.

For more information on the FIA GT1 World Championship visit www.gt1world.com.

Used with written permission from the FIA GT1 World Championship:
The first championship race of the FIA GT1 World Championship was won by Thomas Mutsch and Romain Grosjean in the nr5 Matech Competition Ford GT. Mutsch had to battle hard in the early part of the race to hold a slender lead over Andrea Bertolini in the Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12 but Grosjean, who celebrates his 24th birthday today, pulled away from the rest of the field to take the chequered flag over 20 seconds ahead of Qualifying Race winner Marc Hennerici in the nr13 Phoenix Racing / Carsport Corvette Z06. It was a double celebration for the Corvette team when Andrea Piccini took the final podium position after his partner Mike Hezemans started from the back of the grid.

From pole position Thomas Mutsch had to defend his position from the 2009 FIA GT Champion Andrea Bertolini while behind them Andreas Zuber was already moving up the grid finishing the opening 7 places higher than his 11th grid spot. There were a few collisions in the midfield, with cars spinning and the nr8 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DB9 of Christopher Nygaard pulled off the track into retirement. The nr 4 Swiss Racing Team Nissan GT-R returned to the pits to also retire.

Meanwhile back at the front Mutsch and Bertolini were fighting for the lead with the Ford GT holding back the Maserati at almost every turn with the nr 25 Reiter Lamborghini of Ricardo Zonta coming under pressure from Zuber's Corvette, the Austrian sweeping into 3rd on lap 3.

The leading two cars soon became three as Zuber latched onto the battle for the top spot and fo r the next five laps the top 3 were nose to tail at almost every turn.

The pit window opened on lap 12 and Mutsch was the first car in to hand over the car to Romain Grosjean just after Zuber had found a way around the nr1 Maserati to take the lead. Bertolini pulled into the pits on the next lap to hand over to Michael Bartels while Zuber continued to circulate around the Yas Marina circuit. The lead Corvette pitted on lap 14, handing over to Marc Hennerici, and emerged from the pit lane tunnel to see Romain Grosjean in the nr5 Matech Ford GT sweep past into the lead.

Meanwhile the Nr14 Corvette of Mike Hezemans was also moving up the order and after handing over to Andrea Piccini, the second yellow Corvette was in 4th place and closing rapidly on Bartels in the nr1 Vitaphone Racing Team Maserati MC12. On lap 23 Piccini put the nose of the Corvette down the inside of the Maserati and moved into 3rd place under braking for Turn 8. At the front of the field Grosjean's Ford was pulling away from Hennerici's Corvette and in teh closing stages was a very comfortable 20 seconds in front while Piccini was closing the gap to his teammate.

However the chequered flag came out to end the first Championship Race in the FIA GT1 World Championship with Romain Grosjean celebrating his birthday in style.
Race results:

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