The Record of Success from Oschersleben
2nd July 2006
The preview for Jamie Davies and Thomas Biagi to have a successful race weekend
in the FIA GT in Oschersleben on the 2nd of July were not very promising because
of the penalty which Thomas picked up at the last race in Brno.
Jamie did a good qualifying and set the 4th fastest time but because of their
penalty they had to start the race from the 14th place instead of the 4th.
Their sister car with the no.1 started from the pole position on a really
nice sunny Sunday.
Jamie started the race in car no. 2 and after the first lap he was up to 8th
position. The unbelievable overtaking maneuvers by Jamie Davies went all the
way through his first stint even though it is very difficult to overtake on
the narrow circuit in Oschersleben. In Jamie’s first stint before the
first pit stop he drove up to 3rd place. „In my first stint I loved the
duel with the Aston Martin’s, especially with Fabio Babini. It was fair
racing and good fun.”
After the pit stop Jamie’s partner Thomas Biagi dropped back one place
but he improved his lap times during his stint and at the second pit stop he
gave the car back to Jamie in 3rd position with 40 seconds behind the leading
Maserati no.1.
In the last hour Jamie pushed harder and harder to minimize the difference
between the Phoenix Aston Martin which was in 2nd place and his Maserati MC12.
He overtook Andrea Piccini and closed the gap to the leading sister car to
14 sec.
The Vitaphone Maserati no.1 made no mistakes during the race and the team
did a good job so that they finished 1st in front of the Vitaphone Maserati
no.2. With a perfect job of Jamie Davies in his two stints the German team
had both cars on top of the podium.
Jamie Davies: "Obviously, this is not the ideal circuit to overtake!
My start was very good and I could get around some of the GT2 cars to get up
with the tail of the GT1 cars. We had some fantastic dices with the Astons,
and a great run through the first stint. I had an unfortunate contact with
Karl Wendlinger, but the corner was clearly mine, he turned in on me coming
into turn nine. It's unfortunate, but that's racing. For the first and last
stint the car was very good, the car was running perfectly. I have to thank
Pirelli too as the tyres were fantastic, at the beginning and end of the stints."
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