[FIA GT] (GT1) Le Castellet, France (Rounds 7 & 8) - 2nd - 4th July

[I Rosputnik]

(With regards to Le Mans, lets keep chat about the race. I know GT1 is not everyone's thing, but lets keep the series future to the "ACO drops GT1" thread. Hopefully when Ratel says something we will have something argue about. )


Rounds 7&8 of the FIA GT1 World Championship - 2nd - 4th July
PAUL RICARD HIGH TECH TEST TRACK



Introduction

• So with the first three races over, GT1 now heads to France where Matech will try to keep their lead over Vitaphone in the drivers championship, and vise versa with the teams championship. Natacha Gachnang will also be returning with a new teammate; Oiviler Panis. Also returning will be Christophe Bouchut in the All-inkl.com Lamborghini. He will be partnered with Marc Basseng. We should hopefully have a great race, internal politics aside.

Track Information

• 5.809 km (3.610 mi) long
• The track is now in it's 40th year of service.
• Instead of gravel or grass, the track features black and blue runoff areas.
• Bernie owns this track. (Why does F1 not come here then?)

Current Top Five

1. Thomas Mutsch/Romain Grosjean - 56
2. Andrea Bertolini/Michael Bartels - 44
3. Marc Hennerici - 30
4. Frédéric Makowiecki - 28
5. Thomas Accary - 26

Further Information

• Circuit Website
• Official Preview
• GT1 World's circuit information

Timetable (Local time)

Friday 2 July
09:50 - 11:10 - Free Practice
15:00 - 16:20 - Pre-Qualifying
Saturday 3 July
10:45 - 11:45 - Qualifying
17:30 - 18:30 - Qualifying Race
Sunday 4 July
09:00 - 09:30 - Warm Up
14:15 - 15:15 - Championship Race


Discussion!


Starter Questions:

• Will Oiviler Panis help Natacha Gachnang improve?
• Will the Chevy's get back on top?
• Will Romain Grosjean win again?

***

I hope Panis helps Gachnang, it should give Matech a boost, and I would like to see the Chevy's somehow get back on top.

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

yep, Panis is a great addition to the Ford team, shame we lost Allemann, but it was really strange to see the team having the fastest and slowest cars at one !

[I Rosputnik]

(I've spelt Olivier wrong in the OP!)

It's interesting the names that seem to be appearing in this championship. I wonder how the GT-R's will manage this time around.

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

the GT-R is improving a lot, at Silverstone and Brno, Sumo Power was really strong, only Swiss Racing Team is weaker now

[rich07]

Yes its a shame about Swiss Racing, I was hoping to see Karl Wendlinger do well in GT1 again. Nismo has officially stated that both teams get equal support but is that really true though?

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

I don't know, but I still believe that Sumo Power is closer to Nismo than SRT

[I Rosputnik]

Although the Aston got a weight handicap, its still fastest.

[neilwilson]

Very good quality streaming of the qualifying off the gt1 website (& the gt3 earlier). Sumo on top now.

[I Rosputnik]

#1 Maserati on pole, followed by one the the Reiters.

[Subaru_WRX_STi]

amazing and hot qualifying ! a great run by Reiter's Lamborghini too, 3 cars in the top 7

[Dyrma]

http://www.autosport.com/world-gt1-live
So you have to expect more news from GT1 on the Autosport website

[Stahler]

Hi all, is live stream working for you? I can see nothing.

[19dodge]

same here, not working for me either...

[neilwilson]

Timing screens at:
http://static.sportresult.com/federations/fia/gt1/

[I Rosputnik]

That's annoying.

Nice to see Gachnang higher, though.

[The359]

GT1TV completely failing here as well. Nothing on their website or twitter acknowledging it's failure to work either.

[I Rosputnik]

Bartels is in the lead, and for those vette fans, Maassen is in second, with Haase behind.

(Where's that feed!)

[dank]

Originally Posted by 19dodge

same here, not working for me either...

It's knackered.

I emailed them direct and quickly received the following response:

Thanks for your note and apologies for any problems you are experiencing.

We are working through the issues and hope to have them resolved soon.

[dank]

The #1 Maserati won in what was a BRILLIANT race!

I lie, as I couldn't watch it.

Disappointing really, because all season it's been reliable and high quality.

[NightStalk3r]

Im really not liking this series anymore, every race the FIA **** about with the performance balancing and spoil it.

[I Rosputnik]

I'm reserving judgement until I see the footage. I just hope the stream works again, it's been flawless until now.

How did the Corvettes do, seeeing as they have got the most added weight.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

How did the Corvettes do, seeeing as they have got the most added weight.

You are confused. The +100 kg was for the GT3 Corvette. See http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...ance-4752.html

If you look at the fastest lap times, the performance seems to be balanced rather well: http://static.sportresult.com/federations/fia/gt1/ Most cars did a 2:06.

[mirkob]

QRace now online..

[Ferrari333SP]

I started watching the qualifying race, thinking it was going to be pretty exciting, as I was really excited to see how all the cars did on the long straight. The first lap started, and then I see the Lamborghini go down the straight a bit, then turn into the chicane................Ugghhh. I then proceeded to close my browser to not watch the race anymore. Why not use the full straight? Absolutely pathetic. Potential to see the top speeds of all the cars, and they decide waste the opportunity. Just pathetic. I bet the racing was exciting, but if they don't use the full track, I won't watch. Kind of the same reason I don't watch any races at Hockenheim anymore, after they stopped using the straights. You could say the same about LeMans, but the cars pretty much achieve top speed there. Ugh.

[Purist]

It's even stranger because the LMS did NOT use the chicane, which meant the GT1 Saleen was running on the full Mistral.