Kevin Estre and GPX Racing’s #20 Porsche 911 GT3 R leads the Kyalami 9 Hour after an hour of racing.
The Frenchman, who started the race from fourth, rocketed to second on the opening lap at the start and made a move for the lead on Dennis Olsen. He couldn’t make it stick and instead had to bide his time. He followed Olsen’s pole-sitting Frikadelli Racing Porsche before making a move into Turn 1 up the inside after half an hour of racing in what turned out to be a pre-meditated swap.
“I put a bit of pressure on Dennis, but it was difficult to overtake as we produced similar lap times from different areas,” said Estre after his first stint. “It’s going to be a difficult race. He made some mistakes, I made mistakes, but it’s a Porsche 1-2-3 and we tried to swap positions to see how it would be, it turned out to be a good decision.”
Behind, Laurens Vanthoor move from fifth to third at the start and held station until the end of the hour in the #12 Dinamic Porsche 911 GT3 R, making it a Porsche 1-2-3.
Best of the rest after 60 minutes of action was the #29 Land Audi R8 of Markus Winkelhock, who looked to make it a four-way battle for the lead early on but fell back as the hour mark approached. A strong opening stint from Dane Cameron propelled the Honda Team Motul NSX GT3 to fifth ahead of the #35 KCMG Nissan and #34 Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3.
The Walkenhorst M6 is the best-placed BMW after Martin Tomczyk had a torrid start to the race, dropping from sixth to 13th before the first round of pit stops.
The big headline from the opening hour though, is the drama that struck the #999 GruppeM Mercedes. The Mercedes stopped on the opening lap at pit-out and was unable to restart.
This destroys Maxi Buhk’s title hopes, a huge disappointment for the German who led the Drivers’ title standings by three points coming into the race. Now it’s a fight between Dennis Olsen (Frikadelli Racing), Matt Campbell (Dinamic Motorsport) and Maxi Gotz (SPS Automotive) for the crown.
This also bookended a tough weekend for the GruppeM team, which had to repair the car through the night on Thursday after a heavy shunt in testing to get it out for Pre-Qualifying.
Elsewhere, the #9 Lechner Racing Porsche is currently 12th and the best placed of the entries in the other classes, leading the Silver Class.
Image courtesy of IGTC
