The Maserati Vitaphone Racing Team has held on to its lead in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ title chases in the FIA GT World Championship at the weekend (13-14 September 2008) despite having to drag around Brno circuit massive weight penalties from past victories.

The seventh round of the championship saw the Maserati MC12 of drivers’ title leaders Bertolini and Bartels lug around 125 kg of extra weight, with team mates Ramos and Negraõ struggling to cope with 90 kg.

At the start the Brazilian Negraõ sprang off well, but there was contact with Piccini’s car, causing a spin and the loss of the left door, replaced in the eleventh lap. Meanwhile, Bertolini sprinted from tenth to seventh place and settled behind Esteban Tuero’s Ferrari, overtaking him at the fourth lap.

Bertolini/Bartels remained steadily at sixth place until the finish line, while at the end Ramos and Negraõ managed to climb to seventh place. In the general classification Bertolini and Bartels now have a 13.5-point advantage over team-mates Ramos/Negraõ and 11 points over Hezemans/Gollin’s Corvette.

“In this race we reached the goal we’d aimed for; our objective was sixth place and we got it,” said Bertolini at the finish. “Pity that when we refueled the second time we lost a few precious seconds due to traffic in the pit stop lane, otherwise we would have been able to get close enough to attack Muller.”

The next round will be on October 5th in Nogaro, France.

FIA GT Championship: final results at Brno
  1. Wendlinger/Sharp (Aston Martin DB9) 62 laps in 1:00:56.962secs
  2. Hezemans/Gollin - GT1 (Corvette Z06) + 8.207secs
  3. Maassen/Bouchut - GT1 (Corvette Z06) + 8.590secs
  6. Bertolini/Bartels - GT1 (Maserati MC12) + 1:01.559secs
>  7. Ramos/Negraõ - GT1 (Maserati MC12) + 1:36.948ecs