An unstoppable Andrea Piccini, partnered with a valid Mike Hezemans, “roars” once again in the first round of the 2010 FIA Gt1 World Championship, which took place on Saturday April 17th, at the Yas Marina Circuit, near Abu Dhabi, the same venue of the Formula 1 Championship race.

The Corvette Cgr of the two team Phoenix drivers in fact made an outstanding comeback, rising up to 3rd position, thanks to – besides their driving ability – the huge amount of work carried out during the course of a weekend characterized by continuous problems. Three broken engines: the first during free practice, the second in qualifying, and the third during the warm-up session, where Piccini had however given some very important indications, by recording a best lap time, on the 5,554 metre track, of 2m08.435s.
The Italian-Dutch duo managed to change the last engine just at the beginning of Race 1 (i.e.: the so-called qualifying race), as a consequence remaining two laps behind and finishing last. The final positions therefore established the starting grid for the following race, which saw Hezemans and Piccini starting out from the back of the grid, on 24th position. And here begins their outstanding achievement in this UAE race: Hezemans begins, and in 28 minutes at the wheel manages to bring the car up to seventh position, before handing the car over to the Italian driver.
At this point however the strongest drivers are the ones leading the race and, in the following 32 minutes, Andrea Piccini gives it his best: he is the fastest o the track for the entire duration of his stint, and only the Swiss driver Romain Grosjean, former F1 Renault driver in 2009, is able to keep the pace, in his Ford Gt40.
In the end, Grosjean and German driver Thomas Mutsch take the win, ahead of the Corvette driven by the Austrian Andreas Zuber and the German Marc Hennerici, Phoenix team mates of Piccini and Hezemans.
A few laps from the finish line, Andrea – who laps his Corvette in 2m07.708s, the second best lap time – completes his outstanding performance by overtaking Michael Bartels on Maserati, thus reaching the lower step of the podium.