Reiter Lamborghini completes the double

Lamborghini completed a double at Navarra with victory in the Championship Race to add to the Qualifying Race success earlier in the day.

Ricardo Zonta and Frank Kechele in the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini No.25 recorded 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.

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.

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 sixth.

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.

Sixth place and eight points for the championship leaders Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini in the Vitaphone Maserati No.1 enabled them to stretch their advantage to 35 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.

Reaction and results to follow ...

Info: FIA GT1 World Championship


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Swiss Racing satisfied with Abu Dhabi opener

Lamborghini's Swiss Racing Team was satisfied to score points in the GT1 season opener in Abu Dhabi - especially given the team's extremely short preparation for the start of the season.

Swiss Racing opted to switch from Ford to the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670 for the start of the 2011 season, and while the decision impacted upon its pre-season preparations, it was also vindicated by a points scoring finish for Peter Kox and Karl Wendlinger in the main Championship Race.

The duo, racing in the No. 5 Murcielago, had started the race from 10th position - their finishing berth in the Qualifying Race - but made up several places during the hour-long Championship Race, with Kox eventually collecting the chequered flag in seventh position.

Peter Kox, who joined Swiss Racing this year and has a long history with Lamborghini, was positive about his team's performance on the Yas Marina circuit, saying: "The first weekend included a lot of ups and downs. The team has to learn a lot about the new cars, but the basis and engineering are very good. I am also very happy with my partner (Wendlinger); he has a lot of experience and you could not wish for a better colleague."

Kox's team-mate Karl Wendlinger was also pleased with his team's performance on the Yas Marina circuit: "It was a good start for the team - P7 is not sensational but I am pleased because the car was very fast. If we manage to start from the first three rows we have a very good chance this season."

The weekend proved less fruitful for the No. 6 Lamborghini, which was shared by Sweden's Max Nilsson and the Czech Republic's Jiri Janak, making his GT1 debut. The pair finished just outside the top ten in both races, but both found reasons to be positive from the weekend.

"Everything was new for me: the car, the team, even the track," Jiri Janak explained. "The FIA GT1 World Championship is very hard and you have to be perfect to be among the top pilots. I feel very comfortable with the team though, they did great work and it is fun to work with Max (Nilsson).

Max Nilsson said: "The weekend was very hard because we had no real opportunity to test the cars in advance. I had good speed (during the race) which I am very happy about, but I would want more testing time in order to get to know the cars better."

Info and Foto FIA GT1 Championship/Acreditated and Autorized Media Press.