Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontana netted their third success of the season in a Race 1 at the Circuit Paul Ricard marked by the heat and a big crash at first corner and further incidents in the first phases, which put out of contention eight cars.
The Italian-Swiss pair, in their ZRS Motorsport Porsche, navigated perfectly through the events, and a solid performance by Fontana in the closing laps allowed him to steal the lead. “It was not an easy race, and it’s not a track suited to the Porsches, but we made the most out of it”, said the winners.
Second was the Al Manar by Dragon Ferrari of Al Faisal Al Zubair, back on a GT Open podium, and Ben Tuck, ahead of the Motopark Mercedes of Christian Mansell-Maxi Götz, who took valuable points for the championship. With the Elite Motorsport Ferrari and the Greyston GT #33 on a zero-point day, the situation in the standings is closer than ever, with Emson-Lebbon still leading by three points over Mansell-Götz, 16 on Meakin-Macdonald and 17 on Armanni-Fontana.
Charlie Bateman and Jonny Adam, in the pole-setting Blackthorn Aston Martin, were penalized by the long safety car period but conquered the win in Pro-Am, while the Lewandowskis father and son took their second success of the year in Am.
THE RACE – Jonny Adam achieved pole position with the Blackthorn Aston Martin and took the best start ahead of Tuck, Loake, Baumann, Abril and Mansell, but action was short-lived as mayhem erupted in the middle of the group. The drama was initiated by a spin of Müller, which sparked multiple collisions. The cars of Müller, Monegro, Jedlinski, Hahn and Blanchemain fell victim of the incident, some severely damaged, while in a separate incident, the Elite Ferrari suffered an engine problem and stopped along the track. It took seven laps behind the safety car to clear the track. At the restart, the order did not change with Adam ahead of Tuck, Baumann, Abril, Mansell and Moncini, but Loake was no longer part of the front-runners. Some rubbing with the Ferrari of Tuck, in the fight for second, provoked the puncture of the rear right tyre of the Greystone McLaren, which sustained fatal damage in the attempt to reach the pits.
The driver change window opened two laps later, and after all changes, Al Zubair was leading by two seconds on Fontana, three on Bateman, with Testa, Götz, Perel, Ferrari and Ramirez behind. There were some interesting fights, notably between Milota and Shibata, then between Testa, Götz, Perel and Ferrari.
Fontana passed Al Zubair in lap 24, with Götz taking third after passing Testa. In Pro-Am, Bateman kept the lead, winning ahead of Jefferies and Dybionka, while in Am Lewandowski jr preceded Mazur and Hernández, the latter salvaging third despite being hit by Kell.
