In sunny and warm afternoon at the Hungaroring, Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontna, in the ZRS Motorsport Porsche 911R, took their second win of the season after a perfect race, beating the Motopark Mercedes of Christian Mansell-Maxi Götz and the Greystone GT MacLaren of Zac Meakin-Dean Macdonald. All three pairs relaunched their title bid, as championship leaders Tom Emson-Tom Lebbon in the Elite Motorsport Ferrari were forced to retire.
The show in the final laps of Race 1 in Hungary was courtesy of the Pro-Am contenders, with Laurent De Meeus taking a sensational maiden win, together with Vincent Abril, at the wheel of their AF Corse Ferrari.
The AF Corse camp also celebrated a success in Am, the second for Marcelo Hahn and Galid Osman.
THE RACE – Ahead of the start, on the grid, a minute of silence was observed in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, so tragically hit by the recent earthquake, with Venezuelan Euroformula Open driver Alessandro Famularo symbolically receiving the support of all those gathered at the Hungaroring.
The start of the race saw Alexander Fach, for the first time in pole, not able to use his advantage as he was passed by Lebbon, Fontana and Götz, with the Elite Ferrari taking immediately a visible advantage but being later sanctioned for a jump start.
As always at the Hungaroring, positions did not change much in the initial phases, with Lebbon leading but seeing his margin on Fontana reduce progressively, Götz in third ahead of Fach, Abril and Macdonald who passed Pla in lap one. Korzeniowski, first in Am, was eighth ahead of Pauwels, Milota and Bonanomi. The only incident worth noting was a contact between Poles, as Darmetko touched Mazur, sending him into a spin.
Action goes on so up to the pit stop window, which opens in lap 16. After all changes, Armanni leads with two seconds on Mansell, while Meakin takes third from De Meeus, who leads the Pro-Am class. Emson is fifth 15 seconds behind, followed by Blanchemain, Schwarzer, Salaquarda, Moncini and Neubauer. Osman is the new Am leader ahead of Monegro and Lewandowski.
In lap 27, the safety car is out to allow rescuing the Ferrari of Acosta, which went off track without hitting the barriers but remaining stuck in the gravel. While the race is under yellow the Elite Ferrari is forced to the pits with an engine sensor failure and retires.
After restart, and with a compact group, margins are very narrow but the fights for top position do not yield changes. Armanni resists well to the attacks of Mansell, with Meakin securing third. The real fight is for the top positions, as De Meeus, Blanchemain and Salaquarda are fighting for the win. The two Audis pass the Ferrari but in lap 15, Salaquarda hits Blanchemain in the straight going down to turn 2: the Frenchman is sideways, losing various positions, while the Czech receives a 10-second penalty, which gives back first position to De Meeus.
