NISSAN CLAIM FIRST AND THIRD IN PORTIMÃO CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

Yesterday saw Nissan dominate the GT1 World Championship Race, as the German pairing of Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm claimed victory in the no.23 JR Motorsports, and Jamie Campbell-Walter and David Brabham, in the no.21 Sumo Power GT, secured an excellent third place.

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 driven by Richard Westbrook that emerged from the opening corner maintaining its first place starting position.

Towards the end of the race, the no.23, piloted now by Michael Krumm, managed to overtake car no.22, which had developed a suspected transmission problem seemingly out of nowhere, and only moments later, was forced to retire on lap 27 with only 12 minutes of the race remaining.

Speaking afterwards, a delighted Lucas Luhr said: “Obviously I’m very happy. I was a bit nervous about us all getting through the first corner OK, but it worked out well today. I had a good start and I was side-by-side with Richard but I couldn’t do him in the first corner so I backed off. He seemed to be struggling a little bit to warm up his fresh tyres in the first one and a half laps, but then he pulled away. I just tried to build a gap to the guys behind me and stay close to Richard.

“Our boys did a great job at the pit stop which allowed Michael to come out of the pits just one and half seconds behind Peter. Obviously our sister car had a problem at the end, but that’s the way racing is: sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are unlucky. With the 1-2-3 yesterday, it has been a great weekend for Nissan.”

Round four of the GT1 World Championship will take place at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany next weekend - the 14th - 15th May, 2011.