2011 FIA GT1 Algarve round

The 2011 FIA GT1 Algarve round is an auto racing event held at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão, Portugal on 6–8 May 2011. The event is the third round of the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship season. FIA GT1 previously visited the Algarve circuit in autumn 2010, with drivers Peter Dumbreck and Michael Krumm of Sumo Power Nissan winning the Qualifying Race, and Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini of Vitaphone Maserati winning the Championship Race. The event is supported by the FIA GT3 European Championship, the Mini Challenge, and local Portuguese racing series.

The race weekend was swept by Nissan, whose teams won pole position and both races. JR Motorsports' Richard Westbrook and Peter Dumbreck won pole on qualifying, while the rest of Nissan locked out the front two rows of the grid. In the Qualifying Race Westbrook and Dumbreck won by less than a second over teammates Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr, and Sumo Power's David Brabham and Jamie Campbell-Walter earned Nissan a podium sweep. In the Championship Race, Westbrook and Dumbreck's car suffered gearbox failure, allowing Krumm and Luhr to take the race victory, ahead of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke for Young Driver Aston Martin, and Brabham and Campbell-Walter once again finishing third.

Following the sweep of both races in the second round at Zolder, Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng come to the Algarve as the Drivers' Championship leaders, thirteen points clear of Abu Dhabi winners Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp, and a further six points ahead of the other Hexis AMR drivers Christian Hohenadel and Andrea Piccini. Winkelhock and Basseng's success has however hampered their car with 50 kg (110 lb) of success ballast, while Piccione and Dusseldorp have lost 5 kg (11 lb) from what they carried at Zolder. In the Teams' Championship, Münnich Lamborghini has a 19-point lead over Hexis Aston Martin. The second Aston Martin squad of Young Driver AMR is three points behind Hexis.

Following scheduling conflicts for several drivers involved other racing series, three teams have made changes to their line-ups for this round. DKR Engineering has replaced Jaime Camara with experienced GT1 driver Matteo Bobbi, who drove for both Hegersport and Marc VDS in 2010,^[2] while Frédéric Makowiecki is replaced by former Hexis driver Yann Clairay at Marc VDS.^[3] Belgian Racing has made changes to the line-ups of both of their cars; Christoffer Nygaard joins the team after campaigning for Young Driver in 2010 to partner Vanina Ickx in the Mo. 9 Ford, while Antoine Leclerc, who drove for the team in Abu Dhabi earlier this season, moves to the No. 10 car to partner Martin Matzke.^[4]

For qualifying, Driver 1 participates in the first and third sessions while Driver 2 participates in only the second session. The fastest lap for each session is indicated with bold.

Pos	No.	Driver 1	Team	Session 1	Session 2	Session 3	Grid
		Driver 2
1	22	Richard Westbrook	JR Motorsports	1:43.088	1:42.399	1:42.427	1
		Peter Dumbreck
2	20	Enrique Bernoldi	Sumo Power GT	1:43.001	1:43.256	1:42.517	2
		Ricardo Zonta
3	23	Lucas Luhr	JR Motorsports	1:42.990	1:41.959	1:42.574	3
		Michael Krumm
4	21	Jamie Campbell-Walter	Sumo Power GT	1:43.111	1:42.845	1:43.061	4
		David Brabham
5	5	Karl Wendlinger	Swiss Racing Team	1:43.789	1:43.288	1:43.733	5
		Peter Kox
6	3	Clivio Piccione	Hexis AMR	1:43.604	1:43.265	1:44.157	6
		Stef Dusseldorp
7	41	Yann Clairay	Marc VDS Racing Team	1:44.081	1:43.147	No Time	7
		Maxime Martin
8	8	Stefan Mücke	Young Driver AMR	1:42.966	1:42.248	1:42.7261	132
		Darren Turner
9	7	Tomáš Enge	Young Driver AMR	1:43.958	1:43.534		8
		Alex Müller
10	40	Marc Hennerici	Marc VDS Racing Team	1:43.908	1:43.579		9
		Bas Leinders
11	7	Christian Hohenadel	Hexis AMR	1:43.837	1:43.646		10
		Andrea Piccini
12	11	Mike Hezemans	Exim Bank Team China	1:44.042	1:43.727		11
		Nick Catsburg
13	38	Markus Winkelhock	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	1:42.832	1:43.795		12
		Marc Basseng
14	6	Max Nilsson	Swiss Racing Team	1:43.988	1:43.966		14
		Jiří Janák
15	47	Matteo Bobbi	DKR Engineering	1:44.182			15
		Michaël Rossi
16	9	Christoffer Nygaard	Belgian Racing	1:44.650			16
		Vanina Ickx
17	10	Martin Matzke	Belgian Racing	1:45.359			17
		Antoine Leclerc
–	37	Nicky Pastorelli	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	No Time			18
		Dominik Schwager

1. ^ The No. 8 Young Driver Aston Martin's Session 3 times were cancelled after Stefan Mücke returned to the team's pit stall at the end of the session instead of entering parc fermé. Their qualifying position was demoted to eighth.^[5]
2. ^ The No. 8 Young Driver Aston Martin received a five grid place penalty for changing an engine during the event.^[6]

The quartet of Nissans which had locked out the front two rows led away from the rolling start, with pole sitter Peter Dumbreck entering the first corner in the lead. The No. 5 Swiss Lamborghini of Peter Kox was able to get amongst the Nissans, but made contact with the No. 20 Sumo Power Nissan of Ricardo Zonta, spinning Zonta to a stop on the inside of the corner. Entering the fourth turn, Kox's Lamborghini was then spun by Alex Müller's Young Driver Aston Martin and collecting the Hexis Aston Martin of Clivio Piccione. Müller's car suffered suspension failure and retired after being vaulted into the air by the Lamborghini, while the rest of the field following behind was forced to use runoff and gravel areas on the outside of the turn to avoid the three spun cars. Following the first lap melee, Dumbreck held his lead over teammate Michael Krumm, and Sumo Power's David Brabham maintained third. Stefan Mücke used the incidents to his advantage to move from thirteenth to sixth, while Dominik Schwager was elevated to seventh position after starting last.

At the opening of the pit window Dumbreck's lead was nearly a second over Krumm, while Mücke, Schwager, and Yann Clairay had all managed to pass the Exim Bank Corvette of Nick Catsburg to take fourth, fifth, and sixth places respectively. After the leading pair made their individual stops on consecutive laps, Lucas Luhr was able to take over the race lead from his teammate Richard Westbrook, but two laps later Westbrook passed Luhr down the inside into Turn 1. Westbrook and Luhr maintained their positions within a second of each other to the end of the race, while Jamie Campbell-Walter secured a Nissan sweep of the podium by holding third place fifteen seconds behind the leaders.

Pos	No.	Team	Drivers	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired
1	22	JR Motorsport	Peter Dumbreck Richard Westbrook	Nissan	34
2	23	JR Motorsport	Michael Krumm Lucas Luhr	Nissan	34	−0.388
3	21	Sumo Power GT	David Brabham Jamie Campbell-Walter	Nissan	34	−11.239
4	8	Young Driver AMR	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke	Aston Martin	34	−16.218
5	37	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	Nicky Pastorelli Dominik Schwager	Lamborghini	34	−25.994
6	41	Marc VDS Racing Team	Maxime Martin Yann Clairay	Ford	34	−32.599
7	38	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	Marc Basseng Markus Winkelhock	Lamborghini	34	−39.688
8	20	Sumo Power GT	Enrique Bernoldi Ricardo Zonta	Nissan	34	−40.999
9	11	Exim Bank Team China	Mike Hezemans Nick Catsburg	Corvette	34	−45.470
10	5	Swiss Racing Team	Karl Wendlinger Peter Kox	Lamborghini	34	−1:00.389
11	4	Hexis AMR	Christian Hohenadel Andrea Piccini	Aston Martin	34	−1:01.718
12	6	Swiss Racing Team	Max Nilsson Jiří Janák	Lamborghini	34	−1:10.533
13	3	Hexis AMR	Clivio Piccione Stef Dusseldorp	Aston Martin	34	−1:14.432
14	9	Belgian Racing	Vanina Ickx Christoffer Nygaard	Ford	34	−1:20.638
15	47	DKR Engineering	Michaël Rossi Matteo Bobbi	Corvette	34	−1:33.815
16	10	Belgian Racing	Martin Matzke Antoine Leclerc	Ford	33	−1 Lap
17 DNF	40	Marc VDS Racing Team	Bas Leinders Marc Hennerici	Ford	20	Puncture
18 DNF	7	Young Driver AMR	Tomáš Enge Alex Müller	Aston Martin	0	Collision

Pos	No.	Team	Drivers	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired
1	23	JR Motorsport	Michael Krumm Lucas Luhr	Nissan	34
2	8	Young Driver AMR	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke	Aston Martin	34	−5.497
3	21	Sumo Power GT	David Brabham Jamie Campbell-Walter	Nissan	34	−6.273
4	37	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	Nicky Pastorelli Dominik Schwager	Lamborghini	34	−8.095
5	5	Swiss Racing Team	Karl Wendlinger Peter Kox	Lamborghini	34	−19.651
6	38	All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsport	Marc Basseng Markus Winkelhock	Lamborghini	34	−28.713
7	20	Sumo Power GT	Enrique Bernoldi Ricardo Zonta	Nissan	34	−29.045
8	4	Hexis AMR	Christian Hohenadel Andrea Piccini	Aston Martin	34	−31.111
9	11	Exim Bank Team China	Mike Hezemans Nick Catsburg	Corvette	34	−31.929
10	40	Marc VDS Racing Team	Bas Leinders Marc Hennerici	Ford	34	−55.248
11	9	Belgian Racing	Vanina Ickx Christoffer Nygaard	Ford	34	−1:34.717
12	22	JR Motorsport	Peter Dumbreck Richard Westbrook	Nissan	26	−8 Laps
13 DNF	7	Young Driver AMR	Tomáš Enge Alex Müller	Aston Martin	20	Alternator
14 DNF	47	DKR Engineering	Michaël Rossi Matteo Bobbi	Corvette	6	Gearbox
15 DNF	41	Marc VDS Racing Team	Maxime Martin Yann Clairay	Ford	3	Transmission
16 DNF	6	Swiss Racing Team	Max Nilsson Jiří Janák	Lamborghini	2	Gearbox
17 DNF	10	Belgian Racing	Martin Matzke Antoine Leclerc	Ford	1	Damage
18 DNF	3	Hexis AMR	Clivio Piccione Stef Dusseldorp	Aston Martin	0	Transmission

• Circuito Algarve GT1 Race in Portugal – FIA GT1 World Championship^{[permanent dead link‍]}