2010 FIA GT1 World Championship

Vitaphone Racing won the inaugural FIA GT1 Teams' World Championship with its Maserati MC12s and drivers Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini won the Drivers' World Championship

The 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship was the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship, a motor racing competition reserved for FIA GT1 cars. The championship was a replacement for the FIA GT Championship which had been held annually from 1997 to 2009. It was the first sports car racing series to be sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as a World Championship since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship at the end of the 1992 season.

Developed by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO), the 2010 championship was decided over ten events in ten countries on three continents. It was contested by twelve teams, each being independent of the automobile manufacturer that they represented, although they were permitted limited support from that manufacturer.[1] Aston Martin, Corvette, Ford, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Nissan were each represented by two teams. Unlike the FIA GT Championship, where several tyre manufacturers competed, the FIA GT1 World Championship has a single provider, Michelin.

Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini, who won the final FIA GT Championship for Drivers in 2009, won the first GT1 World Championship for Drivers with a race to spare. Despite finishing twelfth in the Qualification Race in Argentina, Bartels and Bertolini were assured of the title as the Young Driver AMR pairing of Tomáš Enge and Darren Turner could only finish tenth which failed to keep them within reach. A non-scoring weekend for Enge and Turner dropped them to fourth in the final championship standings, as Matech Competition's Thomas Mutsch and Hexis AMR's Frédéric Makowiecki moved into second and third places respectively as Makowiecki won both races and Mutsch finished second in each race. With the assistance of Miguel Ramos, Enrique Bernoldi and Alexandre Negrão in the team's second car during the season, Vitaphone Racing also claimed the Teams' Championship in the same race, as Young Driver AMR, Hexis AMR and Reiter all failed to score enough points to take the championship to a final race.

Aston Martin was awarded the SRO Trophy for Manufacturers.[2]

  1. ^ Sporting regulations – FIA GT1 World Championship Retrieved from www.fia.com on 26 August 2010. As archived at web.archive.org
  2. ^ "Points Chart:2010, gt1world.com, as archived at web.archive.org". Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2011.