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Reiter Lamborghini charges to double race victory

Monday 25 October 2010 12:24 BST
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Lamborghini completed a double at Navarra with victory in the Championship Race to add to the Qualifying Race success earlier in the day on Sunday.

Ricardo Zonta and Frank Kechele in the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini No.25 completed a lights to flag win to collect 33 points for their weekend's work. Their victory margin at the end of a pulsating hour's racing was over 11 seconds.

"It's a great feeling to win our second race of the year." said Kechele, "At the begining of the year I almost had nothing to drive and Hans Reiter gave me the opportunity. He said 'Yeah boy, you are fast enough', and I've proved that I am. I'm not just happy for myself but for the team, that I can pay a bit back with victories. Reiter Engineering want to go right to the top in motorsport'

Second was the Hexis Aston Martin No.9 of Fred Makowiecki and Yann Clairay with the Sumo Power Nissan GT-R No.22 of Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes third.

"We've had a fantastic weekend," said Campbell Walter, "We've been quick all the way through. We've had a really bad run over the last three races, with a bit of carnage at the first corner in Portamio and things like that. The key for us was qualifying. I had a great start and got up to second place. I handed thar over to Warren in third and he did a fantastic job. I think it's what we deserve and pushing hard for Sumo Power to score as many points as we can."

The Young Driver Aston Martin No.7 of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge finished fourth after a stunning drive from 19th place on the grid.

The All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Maserati No.38 of Nicky Pastorelli and Dominik Schwager scored an impressive fifth place from a lowly starting position of 18th. The Marc VDS Ford GT No.40 of Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin was fifth.

Thomas Mutsch in the Matech Competition Ford GT No.5, severely damaged the car in a collision with the Phoenix Corvette No.13 of Alex Margaritas soon after taking over from Richard Westbrook 40 minutes into the race.

The car was eventually retired causing considerable harm to Mutsch's drivers' title hopes.

Seventh place and six points for the championship leaders Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini in the Vitaphone Maserati No.1 enabled them to stretch their advantage to 33 points. Meanwhile, Kechele moved from seventh to third in the drivers' table.

The victory in both the Qualfying Race and Championship Race for Reiter consolidated their second position in the teams' standings.

It was the third time this year that the FIA GT1 World Championship has featured a double win for one of the six brands. The Vitaphone Maserati achieved the feat at Brno and the Young Driver Aston Martin No.7 doubled up in Nurburgring.

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