F1-Blog

The first GP Masters took place Saturday from Qatar.

The race was won by 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell in a close fight with Christian Danner and the only just 45 years old Eric Van de Poele.

The 'old boys' showed great talent and resilience as the heat at Qatar was up to 77 degrees Celsius in the cockpit, and track temperatures of 58 degrees Celsius.

This is the second GP Masters grand prix with the inaugural South African GP last year which Nigel Mansell also won. The race had a number of incidents which brought out the safety car and bunched the grid back up again. Driver comments after the click through.

Nigel Mansell : "A brilliant result but an incredibly tough race out there today. It was a tactical race right from the very start and the pace was really quick out there. I was pleased with the set-up strategy we had adopted on the car because as you saw, I had problems going with turns one and two but the last four corners is what we specially set the car up for and that ' s what ultimately won me the race. About three laps into the race, I suffered a seat installation problem which must have been caused by the high g-loadings but in the end, it came good. These guys were catching me down the main straight and as you saw, I was weaving around the place to avoid anyone getting a tow off me. The first re-start after the safety car was great as I caught everyone unaware and got a great head start. A fantastic weekend all round and my congratulations to everyone involved in staging a truly stunning event. Qatar has made us all feel extremely welcome and we very much look forward to racing here again in the near future."

Christian Danner : "It ' s great to finish 2nd behind Nigel but unfortunately, it could have been better today. Eddie (Cheever) who was in second place at the time seemed sound asleep when the safety car went back in and Nigel by that point had got a huge lead on the re-start. I saw it coming and knew exactly what Nigel was doing but there was nothing I could do. I did have a chance to maybe beat Nigel today but I never really got into a rhythm with my car. It took a few laps before the grip really kicked in and by then, we had a safety car period again. I am, however, very happy with what we have all achieved this weekend and second place will do me - this time."

Eric Van de Poele : "It ' s been nearly fifteen years since my last grand prix and to be on the podium again today was simply awesome! I can still hardly believe it. The race was certainly not short of action and there were so many battles going on up and down the pack but I was lucky as on each lap I found less and less cars in front of me. My race set-up was also the correct one as we put on more wing to compensate for understeer. This worked a treat and really played to my advantage on this super fast and enjoyable circuit. This track really has proved its worth this weekend and for sure more cars need to come racing here. We ' ll certainly be back I hope and in the meantime, my thanks to everyone at GP Masters for producing this amazing show."