2010 FIA GT1 Abu Dhabi round
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The 2010 FIA GT1 Abu Dhabi round was an auto race held at the Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on 16–17 April 2010. It served as the opening round of the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship season, and the inaugural race of the FIA GT1 World Championship series. It was the first sports car race designated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as a world championship event since the 500 km of Magny-Cours held on 18 October 1992. Swiss driver Romain Grosjean and German driver Thomas Mutsch won the championship race for Matech Competition Ford, ahead of the two Phoenix Racing Corvettes which completed the podium. The Phoenix Corvette of Marc Hennerici and Andreas Zuber had won the qualifying race held earlier that day. The UAE Touring Car Championship will serve as a support series for this event.[1]
Qualifying result
Qualifying began under the flood lights of Yas Marina Circuit, the entire session being held late on 16 April. All 24 cars took to the track during the first 20-minute session, with Michael Krumm sitting on top of the field in the early minutes. Frédéric Makowiecki was able to take over the pole position from the Nissan, the first driver to set a lap in the 2:07 range, quickly followed by the Vitaphone Maserati of Enrique Bernoldi less than a tenth of a second behind. In the second half of the session Andreas Zuber was able to jump to the top in the Phoenix Corvette, beating Makowiecki's lap by just under a full second and the only driver to set a lap under 2:07.[2]
Toward the end of the session, Matech driver Natacha Gachnang crashed out on the back straight of Yas Marina, running off the end of the straight and impacting the safety barriers head-on. The session was stopped with just over two minutes remaining while safety crews attended to Gachnang, who was later airlifted from the circuit for medical attention and reported to have fractured her right leg.[3][4] A camera operator situated behind the safety barrier also sustained injuries when his television camera hit him in the face due to the impact.[5] The first session was delayed while Gachnang was attended to until it was announced approximately a half-hour later that repairs to the safety barriers could take up to three hours. The FIA race director then cancelled not only the remainder of the first session, but the entire second and third sessions as well. This awarded Zuber and his teammate Marc Hennerici pole position for the following day's qualifying race, while all other drivers remained in their positions due to the knock-out element of qualifying behind eliminated.[2][5]
For qualifying, Driver 1 participates in the first and third sessions while Driver 2 participates in only the second session. However, due to the cancellation of Sessions 2 and 3 for this event, only the Driver 1 participated in this qualifying session.
