Team Visiom’s trio of Thierry Perrier, Jean Paul Pagny and Jean Bernard Bouvet took the overall win in in their Ferrari 458 GT2 in an erratic first VdeV round of the season at Catalunya. The Visiom team, who won the same event last season, took the win in the rain-interrupted four hour race, beating the Ruffier Racing 911 GT3-R and the #84 Sofrev ASP 458 GT3 to the chequered flag.
The all-British factory Ginetta effort of Mike Simpson and Lawrence Tomlinson – who made the late switch the series after pulling out of this year’s British GT Championship – had a great showing during qualifying.
Great pace put their Team LNT Ginetta G55 GT3 on pole position, but the pair couldn’t sustain it during the race. The G55 immediately slipped down the field on lap 1 and never fully recovered, finishing down in 14th place by race end.
Perrier managed to create a 38 second lead in his 458 within the first hour of racing, but it was nullified after a safety car period. The AB Sport Auto Lamborghini Gallardo stopped in a dangerous position on track with mechanical issues, forcing the stewards to make the call to halt the action.
This incident shook up the running order, as most of the field dived into the pits. The #83 Sofrev ASP Ferrari of Gabriel Balthazar, Mike Savary and Jérôme Policand emerged in the lead, and was involved in an intense battle with the GTV2 class WRT Audi R8 of Harry Teneketzian, Chaix Grégoire and Julien Jousse. At this point the LNT Ginetta and Visiom 458 were also challenging but couldn’t stay on pace with the leading pair.
The rain which had been threatening all day though, would change the order once again, with the shower coming down 90 minutes into the race which forced the teams to pit again for wet tyres. By this point the father-son duo of Patrice and Paul Lafargue in the Ruffier Porsche had driven through the field to take the lead at the half-way mark away from the Sofrev Ferrari.
Paul took over from his father to try and close out the race, but would lose to the hard charging Visiom Ferrari driven by Bouvet and the Escuela Espãnola DE Mosler MT 900.
The GTV3 class Mosler had the lead as the sun went down and the night period of the race approached, but a costly spin by Mosler brought out the safety car for a third time, losing the team 3 laps.
WRT looked primed for a good result, but their race was also ruined. The loss of a side window after Julien Jousse stepped into the car, cost them a classified result, as the damage took too long to repair.
A masterful performance by Jean Paul Pagny in the closing stages of the race sealed the deal for Team Visiom. The Frenchman wouldn’t relinquish the lead for the entire final hour after the Mosler’s off – a 1 minute 45 second margin of victory proved the dominant pace of the GT2 458.
In the GTV2 class the Lorient Racing Porsche 997 Cup S of Phillipe Polette, Frédéric Lelievre and Jean-Michel Neyrial looked to come away win an impressive 6th place overall and a class win but were excluded for technical non-compliance. First place was therefore handed to the Almeras Porsche 997 Cup S of Pierre Martinet, Gérard Tremblay and Franck Perera.
GTV3, was won by the #41 Porsche Blank / Bachelor / Mallegol after a close battle with the two RMS Porsches throughout.
The VdeV championship is set to resume on the 20th of April, where the teams will tackle the Le Mans Bugatti circuit in France.
Stephen Kilbey
