IT was a historic weekend for Nissan in the FIA GT1 World Championship event at Portimao.
The leading three Nissan GT-Rs started the race first, second and third on the grid – the first such placing by a single manufacturer since the GT1 series’ formation – and it was the no.22 JR Motorsports GT-R driven by Richard Westbrook that emerged from the opening corner maintaining its first place starting position.
The experienced Briton was to soon make his fresh tyres count, establishing an 8.5 seconds lead over Luhr’s second placed no.23 JRM GT-R by the 25 minute mark, while Campbell-Walter in the no. 21 Sumo Power GT-R, suffering from excessive tyre pressure which affected the grip and handling of his car, drove expertly to hold off the strong advances of the no.8 Aston Martin challenging for third.
Further back, Enrique Bernoldi – in the no.20 Sumo Power GT that started from 13th following a five place grid penalty held over from the Zolder Championship Race – raced strongly to move as high as eighth place in the race.
Unfortunately, the no.23 GT-R – now driven by Peter Dumbreck – developed a transmission problem and retired, handing the lead to the no.23 GT-R now driven by Michael Krumm.
The race order remained resulting in three GT-Rs taking first, third and eight – Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm took the win in GTR- no. 23, Jamie Campbell-Walte and David Brabham took third in GT-R number 21, while Enrique Bernoldi and Ricardo Zonta took eight.
Round four of the GT1 World Championship will take place at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany, May 14-15, 2011.