Dubai: Gilles Vannelet and Henri Moser drove the race of their lives to power their Kessel Racing Ferrari to second place in the FIA GT3 European Championship to clinch the championship in dramatic fashion at the Dubai Autodrome.
On an afternoon of high drama and with less than a dozen laps to go, it appeared that the Corvette duo had the championship wrapped up as the Kessel Racing Ferrari had been give a stop and go penalty relegating them to eighth place.
But a safety car was deployed to clean up a race track incident which bunched the field up for a restart which Vannelet used to maximum advantage and within two laps of breath taking race craft he had powered to second place usurping his Corvette rival Pirri.
Alex Frassinetti and Diego Alessi powered the BMS Scuderia Italia Aston Martin to one of the closest victory margins of the year beating the Kessel Ferrari squad by just over a second. In third place was the impressive Team Berlanga Ascari driven by Rory Bertram and Jonathan Lang.
All eyes were on the championship contenders and in the end the Vannelet and Moser combination proved to be too strong.
Moser remarked: "It was a very tough championship and the Corvette team put us under big pressure but our team was strong and in the end we feel that we deserve the drivers title."
Results
FIA GT3 European Championship:
1. Frassineti/Alessi - Aston Martin DBRS9 - 1:00:54.498
2. Moser/Vannelet - Ferrari 430 - 1:00:55.915
3. Bertram/Lang - Ascari KZ1R GT3 - 1:00:56.842
4. Von Gartzen/Pirri - Corvette Z06R GT3 - 1:00:57.824
5. Mutsch/Forsten - Ford GT - 1:01:08.776
6. Daoudi/Khan - Ferrari 430 - 1:01:11.955
7. Kaye/Spooner - Ascari KZ1R GT3 - 1:01:12.089
8. Dubrulle/Bera - Ford GT - 1:01:12.440
