Early promise turns to disappointment for Matt Griffin

The promise of a strong result after qualifying on pole for the Sepang 12-Hours ended in disappointment for Matt Griffin and team mates Italian Gianmaria Bruni, British driver James Calado and Malaysian Mok Weng Sun.

They were forced to retire their Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 after just 77 laps. Bruni, driving the first stint made a cracking start and duly pulled away from the opposition. The Italian continued to make progress until came to lap a back marker. Unfortunately, the Lotus turned into the Clearwater Ferrari and the contact bent a rear toe-link leading to steering troubles and Bruni dropped to third.

The damaged right rear suspension components placed undue stress on the left rear tyre that deflated at the very end of Bruni’s opening stint as he nursed the car back to the pits to hand over to Griffin. The Cork ace was in superb form and despite the car missing crucial bits of the rear bodywork he still managed to post similar lap times to the leading cars before Calado took to the wheel. The British driver continued the strong pace until a rear tyre disintegrated due to the earlier suspension damage. In addition, damage to an ECU caused the engine to cut out sporadically and as the bodywork around the left side fuel filling port was damaged the team decided it was no longer safe to continue to race the car.