Summary: A long Safety Car period following an incident at Turn 1 meant the time spent under green in the opening hour was limited. Black Falcon took control of the race.
Out of Turn 1, Yelmer Buurman snatched the lead off the Oman Racing Aston Martin of Jonny Adam, headlining an eventual 1-2 for Black Falcon, with the #1 moving up to second, demoting the Aston to third.
But the main takeaway from the run down to Turn 1, was a three-car incident, taking out the #87 GDL Racing Porsche of Mario Cordoni. There were conflicting reports, but it seemed that Cordoni was shoved into Alex Kapadia’s Dragon Racing Ferrari by the #55 AF Corse Ferrari of Ilya Melnikov, bringing out the Safety Car.
“I was pushed from behind by someone who can’t drive, by an idiot!,” said GDL Racing’s Mario Cordoni on Radio Le Mans. “The car is finished for this race.”
The AF Corse and Dragon Racing Ferraris continued, after the Dragon team underwent lengthy repairs to the rear of the car.
“I’m going into the first corner, taking it steady, turn in, get tapped into a spin and got collected by a Porsche,” Kapadia later revealed.
The Safety Car period lasted over half an hour, and when it went in the pair of Black Falcon Mercedes were straight on the pace. Buurman opened up a 1.6 second gap to the rest of the field after the first green lap.
Outside of the top three, there was a scrap for fourth with Michael Broniszewski in the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari fending off three Ferrari’s behind – the #51 AF Corse, #38 Black Pearl and #25 FF Corse 458s.
After a few laps of squabbling, Castellacci moved up to fourth, getting by the Kessel car round the outside at Turn 1. Pierre Kaffer later followed Castellacci through, to give Black Pearl Racing fifth spot.
Meanwhile up front, Jeroen Bleekemolen, who was on a mission to make up for lost ground in Qualifying, was lapping quicker than everyone else on the circuit, and within half a second of the lead.
With 50 minutes run, Bleekemolen took the lead from Buurman and held station until the end of the hour.
After one hour of action at the fifth running of the Gulf 12 Hours, the top five was as follows:
#1 Black Falcon Racing
#2 Black Falcon Racing
#44 Oman Racing Team
#51 AF Corse (Leader in Pro Am)
#38 Black Pearl Racing
Leading the Gentlemen class – #65 Kessel Racing
Leading the Cup Class – #20 MRS
11 hours to go at Yas Marina.
Stephen Kilbey
Photos: John Dagys
