2012 GT1 World Championship

[Marian Zelenka]

I know. Too bad.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Circuito de Navarra is one of the newest editions to the motorsport scene and joined the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010, the year the facility was built. The circuit is located near Los Arcos in the Navarre region of Northern Spain.

Circuito de Navarra stretches 3.933km (2.444 miles) and features 15 corners offering drivers a combination of fast and slow sections. Previous events held at Navarra include rounds of Superleague Formula and FIA GT3 European Championship.

The Spanish circuit has provided some of the best racing action in the FIA GT1 World Championship over the past couple of years where temperatureshave soared amid a battle of the brands.

The timetable for the third round of the FIA GT1 World Championship at the Spanish circuit of Navarra.
(local time: GMT +02:00)

Saturday 26th May
Free Practice 1 - 09:00-10:20
Free Practice 2 - 12:10-13:20
Qualifying Race - 19:45-20:45

Sunday 27th May
Warm-up - 09:00-09:30
Championship Race - 12:45-13:45

 

[Dino Paolini]

This could finally be a track for the Ferrari if it's not raining again. I remember the Nissan GTR beeing among the best for the last 2 seasons on Navarra, which means that higher topspeed cars should have a slight edge on this one.

 

[JakkeFin]

Live now:

http://www.youtube.com/user/gt1world?feature=results_main

http://www.gt1world.com/

 

[Travis]

Great track (would love the SBK series to visit) and the racing was great. Tiny GT3 grid didn't prevent an excellent battle for the lead in race one, race two was also entertaining.

GT1 races were very good, good to see the cars from Woking are getting better.

 

[Dino Paolini]

GT1 this year is a bad and a great season at the same time in my opinion

Bad, because there are less and less cars on the grid, with 13 last time at Slovakiaring beeing a lowpoint so far I believe

But also great, because the battles on the track even with this small field are really nice. The championship is also really close for both teams and drivers titles.

There are also 2 things that I would conclude so far:

1. The Mercedes seems to be the strongest car in general, considering all the different track types
2. Yelmer Buurman seems to be the strongest driver overall in every situation, qualifying, races, rain ect.

 

[Bradley Capps-Jenner]

One of the most outrageous moments from the 2011 GT1 World Championship, which in my opinion was the best, CRAZY MUCKE!!

 

[Trebor901]

wtf was Winklehock doing?! doesnt deserve the title if he takes people off on purpose like he just did and it ended in a pretty big crash

 

[Peter]

The race is not restarted, I hope Buurman is OK

 

[Nick Deeley]

I believe Winklehock has been DQ'ed from the championship for causing the crash with Buurman. Got news of that when packing up at Donington today. Buurman has been sent to a hospital in Nottingham. I spoke to the medical crews that treated him at the circuit. They say he suffered classic 'brain shake'. Essentially the skull stays still thanks to the innovations in safety, but the contents inside still move about..causing him to drift in and out of consciousness.

At the hospital, a CT scan was performed and he will be kept in overnight for observation. He is expected to leave tomorrow morning, and make a full recovery fairly quickly.

About the crash. He hit a concrete wall (which is a few tons in weight). The car snapped the wall clean in 2. Impact was probably over 100mph (160km/h). I walked past the wall where he crashed..and to move the wall must of taken some force. There was ALOT of left of BMW. I wouldn't be too surprised if the car is a complete write off and probably scrapped.

 

[Nick Deeley]

For those that missed the crash. It's not pretty, so for those that don't like seeing stuff like this, I suggest not to watch.

 

[Kacper Kolodziejczyk]

I believe Winklehock has been DQ'ed from the championship for causing the crash with Buurman.

No sir, this is not the case. On the official site it states that they were striped of points only for the race and keep their title. This is wrong... plain wrong, if this kind of behavior is going to be tolerated, you might as well take the challenger out before the first corner. Hope this is only a one off, but oh my, I don't like that.

 

[Trebor901]

Its a similar crash to the one in btcc in 2008 between matt neal and stephen jelley, happened in the exact same place, is it optical illusion that the merc looks like it moves over on the bmw or is it actually intended contact to take the bmw out of the race? if its the latter then winklehock doesnt deserve a racing licence

 

[Nick Deeley]

No sir, this is not the case. On the official site it states that they were striped of points only for the race and keep their title. This is wrong... plain wrong, if this kind of behavior is going to be tolerated, you might as well take the challenger out before the first corner. Hope this is only a one off, but oh my, I don't like that.

Ah, I must of heard incorrectly. There were F3 cars going round the circuit at the time, and I was busy with photos, so wasn't paying full attention to the commentary.

But, he should of been DQ'ed from the championship, and like you, I do hope this is a one-off. I've not heard anything from Winklehock about the incident though.

 

[Nick Deeley]

From a photographer friend of mine, who was stood there 30s earlier...

 

[Bradley Capps-Jenner]

Guys, I've been wondering, why has the championship ended now?, I mean why won't there be a GT1 World Championship next year?

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Guys, I've been wondering, why has the championship ended now?, I mean why won't there be a GT1 World Championship next year?

Well we've had 11 (?) cars at the end of this season (plus the GT3-European Championship cars). Also SRO had to violate the FIA rules concerning FIA World Championships to bring this season to an end. FIA strips the status from the SRO to award it to the GTEs in WEC from next year on. SRO might even be stripped of the European Championship but not sure.

 

[Dino Paolini]

Regarding the incident on the last race:

If I had to decide the outcome of it, I would have decided exactly like they officially did.
If they would have given a points deduction to Basseng/Winkelhock, the champion would have been Makiowecki/Dusseldorp in the McLaren; a car that was mathematicaly out of the championchip even before the race started.
If there would have been a way to decide this in favor of Bartels/Buurman though, I would have chosen that instead.

Only exceptiion would have been if Winkelhock was found to do the colission on purpose. Then you would have to strip them of everything ect. But looking at the replays, I don't think you can attest the clear intention to collide here.