GruppeM - FIA GT Championship - Imola
FIA GT Championship Round 4

After the relative disappointment of Silverstone a fortnight ago, it was back into the groove for GruppeM at Imola, with a resounding one-two for the Porsche-backed squad. In the interest of fair play (and thanks, no doubt, to the hefty allocation of success ballast to their team-mates) it was the turn of Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden to enjoy the top step of the podium, clinching victory over Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb, after a copy-book performance from both pairs.

With more than a third of the grid falling by the wayside, this was a race of attrition by three-hour standards. The intense heat had cars as well as drivers expiring in steamy heaps, and even those drivers in coolsuits (when they were working properly) found an hour-long stint a tough challenge. Overnight both GruppeM’s Porsches had been fitted with the requisite equipment, but a damaged connector saw Marc Lieb endure an abbreviated middle stint without the luxury of an operational icebox. Combining this with the effects of a bad headcold and his run was curtailed by ten laps, but aside from this, Imola represented another faultless performance by the GruppeM squad.

Emmanuel Collard and Mike Rockenfeller had accepted first stint duties in the #88 and #66 cars respectively, the Frenchman qualifying just one row ahead of his team-mate. To his left was Italian Enea Casoni, bringing some fresh local talent to the #8 GNM Saleen this weekend, while Rocky would start alongside Harald Becker in the second of the Konrad Saleens.

The start went smoothly for the two Porsches, but Becker was on an early charge, nipping ahead of all three when Casoni spun on the opening lap. “It was very close at the beginning,” said Rockenfeller. “I was right behind Manu into the first corner, but I couldn’t get past him. There was a lot of dirt and dust, because the front-runners had been trying to pass and one or two had gone off. Then the Saleen spun at the last chicane. It wasn’t a problem for us and we just drove around him.” The GNM Saleen would end the lap in last place, with Collard thirteenth and Rockenfeller fourteenth, first and second in GT2, line astern on Becker. “I tried to stay behind Emmanuel, but they (Manu and Tim) were a lot quicker than us in the race, than we were anyway, because of the weight,” added Rocky.

Over the next few laps Collard steadily drew out a modest advantage. It might only have been by little more than half a second a lap, but those extra kilos were certainly telling, and Rockenfeller was finding it very difficult to match his rival’s pace. On lap four Max Stanco muscled through in the RAM Racing GT1 Saleen, splitting the two Porsches and setting Rockenfeller a good four seconds adrift, and by the time the Pole cleared Collard on lap eight, the gap had widened to five. Shaun Balfe, taking first stint in the #101 G2 Mosler lay a further ten seconds down the road, with the nearest GT2 runner being the Ebimotors Porsche, Luigi Moccia just keeping the Mosler in sight.

This set the pattern for the next half hour. The gap between the two GruppeM cars grew inexorably, Collard consistently lapping in the low one fifty-threes, Rockenfeller nearer the fours. On lap twenty Mike Hezemans in the leading GLPK Corvette came steaming through, passing Rockenfeller easily, but taking a further two laps to catch Collard. As the other GT1 front-runners came through, it seemed that the #66 caught the worst of the encounters, sometimes losing a couple of seconds, occasionally more. It all added to the toll already imposed by the extra ballast, and when Rockenfeller headed for the pitlane to end his stint and hand over to Marc Lieb, Collard’s lead stood at nearly half a minute.

The pitstop went smoothly right up to the point that Marc Lieb attempted to connect his coolsuit. While everything else, from refuel to tyre change, was completed with typical GruppeM efficiency, the socket on the hose simply wouldn’t engage properly, and Lieb was forced to blast out of the pits unplugged. The guy was already feeling the heat, having gone down with the first signs of some bug or other on the Thursday, and conditions in the cockpit were almost unbearable. A stint without the benefits of a coolsuit was about to be a severe test of character. He emerged on track just behind Collard, and to those in the stands who’d missed the pitstop, it must have looked as though the gap had suddenly narrowed miraculously. Not for long. A couple of laps later, number thirty-seven by the leader’s tally, Collard burbled down the pitlane in the #88, finger on the limiter, to hand over the lead Porsche to Tim Sugden.

This time the stop went without a hitch, although by comparison it was almost leisurely, gifting all of three seconds to the number 66. “The guys were ultra efficient, as always,” said Adam DeBorre, chief engineer on the #88. “One extra to the routine today has been topping up the coolsuit box with ice (Tim Sugden checking his suit, right), and that adds a bit of complexity, but they gave us two really good pitstops.” By the time Sugden accelerated out of the pitlane Lieb was coming round again, but once Sugden was up to speed it was evident that the margin between the two remained insurmountable – at least as far as Lieb was concerned. “For sure, the extra weight wasn’t helping us at all. Having 35 kilos more than the others is a big penalty, and it slows you down, especially at Imola where you have a lot of uphill acceleration and downhill braking. It’s really, really difficult, braking for the Rivazza especially. That was our problem all weekend.”

This middle stint was pretty uneventful for Tim Sugden – hardly comfortable, of course, but at least he had the benefit of a fully functioning coolsuit and a generous lead. “It felt really, really good,” said Sugden later. “Manu had driven a brilliant first stint and handed the car over to me with a 24-second lead. I drove at 98% to be honest, just to make sure we were safe.” Not so Marc Lieb, who was not only feeling the affects of the extra weight, but also the combination of heat and health. “Marc has been suffering from a bit of flu, and with the coolsuit not working and the cockpit temperature in the region of 50 Celsius or more, it was very difficult for him,” said Adam. “Having all those hot pipes running through the chassis can make it very uncomfortable.” Lieb did remarkably well under appalling conditions, and his lap times remained on the button throughout – the two cars trading fifty-threes and fours all the way down the line – but it was starting to take its toll.

“I was calling the pit and said it was impossible to continue driving,” admitted an exhausted Lieb. “To begin with I had been close to Tim, but I had to push hard just to stay there. We’d also used the medium compound rubber for my stint they were not working as well in the heat. The car started to loose grip from the rear after a few laps and I was sliding all over the place. At the beginning I could do some decent laps times, but by the end everything felt lazy, and I couldn’t brake as late any more. I was too tired, too hot, and I wasn’t performing well.”

Eventually the team elected to bring Marc in several laps ahead of schedule, to hand the car back to Mike Rockenfeller (left). It was lap 62. “By the time Marc came back we knew what to do about the coolsuit,” explained Rocky. “I was able to connect mine again, but it meant I would have to do a long third stint.”

As luck would have it, the length of a lap and the time it takes to complete a pitstop are roughly the same at Imola, and Rockenfeller came back out on track with Sugden’s tail just disappearing out of sight round Tamburello. It was the spur he needed, and with the coolsuit now functioning again, Rocky was a man with a mission. His next six laps took more than ten seconds out of Tim Sugden’s lead and brought the #66 to within striking distance of the #88 – or so it appeared. “I could see Tim, and being on new tyres I was able to push a bit harder. Two or three more laps and I could have passed him!” grinned Rockenfeller mischievously. In reality, with Sugden yet to pit, the margin was more than a lap.

That anomaly was addressed on lap 72, ten laps after the exchange between Lieb and Rockenfeller, when Sugden headed back down the pitlane to return the car to Collard. “It went very well indeed,” admitted Sugden. “The pitstop was perfect, and apart from a slightly long brake pedal, the car felt good too.”

In effect, this re-established the #88’s lead and set the seal on the final stint. Collard, refreshed by a break from the wheel, was soon replicating the kind of pace that had opened up such a commanding lead during the first half hour. Rockenfeller pushed on gamely, but had no real answer to the Frenchman’s turn of speed, taking the flag forty-three seconds later. “We tried to stay as close as we could and make no mistakes,” he said later. “The only thing we could do was drive our race. They could have had a problem, maybe a spin, or there could have been a yellow, and we could have used that. You have to anticipate things like that, so you always push and try you best just in case. Of course, they had no problems, so that was that. Manu and Tim did really well, and they deserve the victory – and the extra kilos!”

A full five laps down the road – giving some indication of just how emphatic this one-two result was for GruppeM – came Shaun Balfe’s G2 Mosler, with third in GT2 falling to the Lammmertink Porsche 996 GT3 of Wolfgang Kaufmann and newcomer Luca Moro.

Adam DeBorre was delighted by the result. “The whole event went perfectly to plan,” he declared “It was evident that the success ballast was the main factor affecting the performance difference between the two cars. They’ve always been so similar all year, so to have such a difference here can only be down to one thing. Even so, it’s good to get a result like this so soon after the disappointment of Silverstone.” The #88 suffered a unique split in one of its coolant hoses last time out and could only finish sixth. This time they were not only GT2 winners, but also an impressive seventh overall. “It’s just a little bit frustrating when you win the race, and then your team mates finish second, so you only make up a couple of points,” observed Tim Sugden.

Steve Bunkhall, overseeing the #66 car as always, was philosophical. “It’s a good result all round,” he declared. “We struggled a bit with the extra weight, which must be worth maybe half a second a lap. That affected the balance of the car as well, but Adam and his guys had been on it all weekend, and were very quick. Great credit to them, and credit to Michelin as well. They’ve given us an excellent tyre this year. It’s been really good, even in this hot weather, and we could have double-stinted today. Consistency and longevity is are vital in a race tyre, and we’ve certainly been getting that.” Adam readily agreed. “The tyres were mega, and we just didn’t have a problem all weekend. The fact we could probably have double-stinted bodes really well for Spa and the 24 Hours later in the year. We’ve established a good set-up on both cars now, and the prospects for the rest of the season are looking really promising.”

Jerry Pyman, team manager for GruppeM, was over the moon. “This has been a fantastic result for the whole team,” he said. “Everything went so smoothly, and the only problem we had all day was when Marc couldn’t plug in the coolsuit. All the drivers had to put up with the conditions today, of course, but driving a stint without the suit was tough. Marc did really well.”

All the drivers are now looking ahead to the next round at Brno in four week’s time. Lieb and Rockenfeller are certainly relishing the prospect of a battle on slightly more even terms. “There will only be 15 kilos difference between the two cars,” observed Lieb. “We should have a better chance. Brno is also an up-and-down circuit, like Imola, but it’s a lot smoother; less bumps and no kerbs you can run over. It’s a nice racetrack and I really like it. In fact, it’s one of my favourites. Mike and I are both sure we can do better there. We knew that Imola would be difficult for us, but after we ran so well on Friday we’d hoped that Mike could be up there with Manu in qualifying, but it didn’t work out.” Rockenfeller was evidently glad to put Imola behind him and is already looking forward to Brno. “We may still have 15 more kilos than them, but I’m sure we can be back on the middle of the podium.” In the meantime, three out of four GruppeM drivers have another race to think about – they’re all in action at Le Mans next week.
Marcus Potts