The Final Round of the FIA GT Championship in Dubai
19th November 2006
On the 17th and 18th of November the 10th and last round of the 2006 FIA GT
Championship took place in the Dubai Autodrome.
The team championship was already won by the Vitaphone Racing Team two rounds
before the end of the season and also the driver’s championship was won
by the Vitaphone Racing Team with Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini before
the last race started. But the growing Arabian emirate Dubai was waiting for
all FIA GT teams to celebrate the last round in 2006.
For the last race in 2006 the Vitaphone Racing Team decided to put the two
Belgium drivers who have driven in Spa at the 24h for the team in both of the
MC12’s. That meant that Jamie Davies was team mate with Thomas Biagi
and Vincent Vosse in car no.2 and car no.1 was driven by Michael Bartels, Andrea
Bertolini and Eric van de Poele.
Jamie did the qualifying but with a heavy car and too much traffic on his
fast lap he qualified in 6th place. Car no.2 had 105kg ballast weight for the
success in the last races and was the heaviest car on the grid. Jamie started
the race and did a fantastic stint. He gave the car to Vincent Vosse with just
3.5 sec behind the leading Aston Martin with Andrea Piccini. Vincent lost a
few seconds and handed the car to Thomas Biagi who finished the last race of
the season in 3rd position.
Andrea Piccini and Jean Denis Deletraz won the race with their Aston Martin
DBR9 infront of the Corvette C6 with Mike Hezemans, Bert Longin and Anthony
Kumpen.
Jamie: “I am glad to finish the season on the podium. I have to thank
Maserati and Pirelli for a nice year. It is a shame that we didn’t get
any points in Spa otherwise we would have finished the championship a bit higher
than 5th place. To take stock of the year I had six podium places, two wins,
one second place and three third places plus fastest lap at the Spa 24 hours
for a second year running. I hope that I have shown some exciting racing and
that the fans enjoyed watching the races this year. I also want to thank everybody
who kept their fingers crossed for me, also the team and everyone who supported
me.”
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