FIA GT1: Mad-Croc Corvette takes the win with Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago in second

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Xavier Maassen and Jos Menten took their first win of the 2010 season in the Qualifying Race for Round 5 at Spa-Francorchamps. After two days of traditional changeable Ardennes weather the sun shone on a dry track as the Dutch pairing steered their Mad-Croc Racing Corvette Z06 to the checkered flag from pole position, finishing 1.8 seconds ahead of the Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago of Ricardo Zonta and Frank Kechele, the best result in the championship for Lamborghini. Marc Hennerici and Mike Hezemans brought the Phoenix Racing / Carsport Corvette home in a distant 3rd place to record their first podium since Abu Dhabi.

Maassen will start tomorrow’s Championship Race at Spa-Francorchamps from Pole Position and Round 5 of the 2010 FIA World Championship will start at 12:05 (local)

1st Jos Menten – Nr 11 Mad Croc Racing Corvette Z06

“At the start, I was worried that I wouldn’t see the start lights, because I’m in Xavier’s seat, so I’m a little bit higher in, so I asked my engineer to tell me when it was green. I saw the green, so that was lucky for me. Schwager made it a bit difficult, I had to fight for the first corner, but that was okay. After Eau Rouge, I looked in the display in my mirror, and I saw I had a little gap, and I was a happy in my car for a bit. At the end of the lap, my engineer called Safety Car, before the bus stop chicane, so I lifted off a bit, because I was thinking that the car would come on, but there were no flag posts or anything. I was a bit angry at myself for listening to him, but I put the throttle back on and went away. I knew I had to push for the whole 30 mins to stay in first, because I know what Frank Kechele is capable of. We had some problems with the tyres, a little bit of oversteer, but I think most people had that.”

1st Xavier Maassen – Nr 11 Mad Croc Racing Corvette Z06

“It was great. We made a good pitstop. We had an awesome car in the beginning. Struggled a bit with a bit the low tyre pressure, and I saw Ricardo coming quite close; it was a bit up and down. I needed to increase the gap, and we had the ability to do it, which was good. The car seemed to be running fine. We had a good car all through the race, except for the last couple of laps, with the understeer and oversteer, because of the high tyre degradation here. But we managed to do well and we’ve now officially qualified on pole for a championship race, which is good. We’ll still have a job to do tomorrow. We’re going to look at the data to see if we can improve a bit for tomorrow, and from there we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

2nd Frank Kechele – Nr 25 Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-SV

“I got a really good start and I saw them (Menten and Schwager) fighting going to the outside and thought I could be the lucky third one to catch them on the inside, but Jos was clever enough to close the inside again, and I was happy with P2. The car went really well; I was a bit careful in the first laps, because last time the tyres dropped quite a lot, but the teams did a great job on the setup to get the car over the distance and it went really well. Towards the end, I even managed to close in on Jos again. We thought we might be able to take them in the pitstop, but we came out just behind them. Ricardo did a great job closing in on them again, but there was no need to push to hard; the big race is tomorrow. I think we’re ready to attack.”

2nd Ricardo Zonta – Nr 25 Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-SV

“Frank did a very good job, of course. The first part of the race was very difficult and Frank did a good job. When I took the car, I tried to catch the car in front, but the car was very consistent, and I pushed at the start to get closer and closer, but I saw that there was no way to get there. I’m very happy with second. I think we did a good job, and still got some work to look forward to tomorrow.”

3rd Marc Hennerici – Nr 13 Phoenix Racing /Carsport Corvette Z06

“We are really happy because I’m still 3rd place in the championship, so I need the points. The other Corvette was much quicker, so we have a lot to think about, what might be wrong with the car. It was a great race, but the start was really bad for me, because the left side braked so late that I lost 2 places; I could pass Bas Leinders, but when I was behind Mücke, I could close the gap, but I lost so much downforce in the corners, I didn’t expect this massive effect in a GT car, but there was no chance of passing. This is my favourite track though.”

3rd Mike Hezeman – Nr 13 Phoenix Racing /Carsport Corvette Z06

“It was a good race, but the other Corvette was quicker. I drove there, I know their setup, which we’ll try tomorrow in warm up. We’ll see tomorrow. Apart from the problem with the car on the slow down lap, the race was fine. But I always seem to be in the wrong car.”

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