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Matech’s Natacha crashes into barrier

The all-woman team of Matech Competition’s start to the season opener of the FIA GT1 World Championship got going in the worst possible way.

One of their drivers involved in an accident at the Yas Marina Circuit on Friday.

Natacha Gachnang crashed her Ford GT Matech into the barriers before the left-hander exit of the longest straight during Q1 of the qualifying session. Natacha, who is the cousin of Formula One driver Sebastien Buemi, failed to take the left-hander and rammed straight into the barrier. Natacha suffered a broken leg and was airlifted to hospital, an FIA official said. The session was stopped but with the damage to the barriers being huge, qualifying was eventually cancelled. The grid for Saturday’s Qualifying Race will be the order when the Q1 session was stopped.

The 22-year-old Natacha is also the first female driver to ever take part in the Formula One feeder series—the FIA Formula Two Championship.

Earlier in the day, Natacha Gachnang and Cyndie Allemann had a time of 2:09.822 seconds in pre-qualifying. They had finished 10^th in free practice. The duo lapped the circuit in their Ford GT Matech with a fastest time of 2:10.032 seconds in free practice.

Earlier, Matech Competition topped pre-qualifying. The duo Thomas Mutsch and former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean, driving a Ford GT Matech, recorded the fastest time of 2:07.871 seconds. They were also fastest in free practice earlier in the day. They had a fastest time of 2:07.580 seconds and had a top speed of 269kmph and an average speed of 157kmph.

The Vitaphone Racing Team were second. Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini had the quickest time of 2:07.989 seconds. Earlier, in free practice, they were second as well, logging a fastest time of 2:08.714 seconds in their Maserati MC12.

Phoenix Racing/Carsport came in third with a fastest time 2:08.005 seconds. They were third in free practice with a time of 2:09.019 seconds. Mike Hezemans and Andrea Piccini were driving a Corvette Z06.

The new FIA GT1 World Championship was making its debut in Abu Dhabi. The 10-round Championship will travel four continents and will race at some of the famed circuits like Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nurburgring, Paul Ricard and Interlagos.

Dubbed the ‘Battle of the Brands,’ fans in the UAE got a peek at six of the top sportscars— Aston Martin DB9, the Corvette Z06, the Lamborghini Murcielago R-SV, the Ford GT, the Maserati MC12 and the Nissan GT-R, burn some rubber at the impressive Yas Marina Circuit.

Twelve teams have registered for the new world championship which will Formula One, the World Rally Championship and the World Touring Car Championship as the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) fourth fully accredited world championship. The FIA is the governing body for motorsport in the world. The series will also be the FIA’s only world championship aimed solely at private teams without any factory involvement, which is aimed at keeping costs under control.

The Championship opener also saw the return of former Formula driver Romain Grosjean. Grosjean, who filled in for Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault, last raced, in his brief stint in Formula One, at the season-ender in Abu Dhabi.

Each car has two drivers and a mandatory pit stop in the middle of the one-hour Qualifying Race and the Championship Race, for change of drivers and tyres.

The Cytech UAE Touring Car Championship is the support race for the race weekend.

Points for the championship race: 1. 25 points; 2. 18 points; 3. 15 points; 4. 12 points; 5. 10 points; 6. 8 points; 7. 6 points; 8. 4 points; 9. 2 points; 10. 1 point.

james@khaleejtimes.com