Race 2 of the season, on Sunday at the Circuit Paul Ricard, with the GT Open runners sharing the grid with the Cup Open entrants, saw the Lamborghinis take their revenge from the previous day, as Vincenzo Sospiri Racing scored a relatively unexpected 1-2, with Frederick Schandorff-Michele Beretta winning ahead of team mates Yuki Nemoto-Baptiste Moulin, after a quite lively race.
Porsche came back to the podium thanks to the Lechner Racing car of Andy Soucek-Al Faisal Al Zubair, who led for most of the race.
After the weekend’s action in France, VSR leads the Teams’ standings and Beretta-Schandorff the Drivers’ rankings, tied with Race 1 winners Ivan Peklin-Jordan Pepper, in the Team Lazarus Bentley, fifth in Race 2.
In Pro-Am, Patryk Krupinski-Christian Klien (in the repaired JP Motorsport McLaren), fourth overall, won and found some consolation after yesterday’s drama, beating Brendan Iribe-Ollie Millroy (Inception McLaren) and Markus Sattler-Nico Bastian (Winward Mercedes). In Am, Giuseppe Cipriani imposed the Lamborghini of Il Barone Rampante ahead of the other Huracan of Coach McKansy-Jan Seyffert (HP Racing International).
At the start, poleman Adam Carroll was out-powered and passed by Soucek, who took the lead, Millroy and Nemoto, with Paverud in fifth ahead of Beretta, Krupinski, Peklin and Liebhauser, first in Am.
Positions were quite stable in the initial laps, with the biggest battle being for 7th, between Krupinski, Peklin and Liebhauser.
On lap 10, as the leaders took a first lap to the GT Cup contenders, Soucek had a hesitation and Millroy attempted a move to get past. There was a slight contact between the two and Nemoto, diving on the inside, pipped everybody and became the new leader.
In the meantime, Peklin dropped to 9th.
On lap 13, the window for driver change opened and after all pit stops, Al Zubair was still in the lead, with a 3-second gap on Schandorff, 4 on Moulin and 7 on Iribe followed by Balfe, Moller, Klien and Pepper.
A change of leader came on lap 23, as Schandorff passed Al Zubair, while Moulin was, by now, third ahead of Iribe, Klien, Pepper and Moller. The greatest fight was between two McLarens, for fourth, with Iribe conceding the position three laps from the end after a great resistance.
The last move saw Moulin passing Al Zubair to take second and secure VSR’s 1-2. In Am, Scholze stopped in the final moments and Cipriani took the win.
GT Cup Open Race
Andrzej Lewandowski won Race 2 of the GT Cup Open Europe season-opener at Circuit Paul Ricard, giving Vincenzo Sospiri Racing and Lamborghini another success, as the Italian team posted a 1-2 also in the GT Open. The fields of the two series raced together in an exciting race full of action.
Lewandowski, who drove alone, was ‘exhausted but very happy’ at the end of his effort, which puts him on top of the provisional overall standings, ahead of country-fellows Maciej Blazek-Mateusz Lisowski (A&P Racing PTT Race Support), today fourth with their Porsche, and Belgians Rodrigue Gillion-Nico Verdonck, who today had a stellar performance with the ProSport Racing Aston Martin Vantage, taking the pole, second overall and the Pro-Am win.
The race saw poleman Nico Verdonck keeps the advantage at the start, but he had to concede the lead to Lisowski in lap 2, with Lewandowski a close third. There was a great fight for fourth in the initial laps between Antoszewski and Darmetko, while both Bozzoni and Klingelnberg spun on their own.
In the lead, Lisowski could not really pull away and remained under constant threat from Verdonck, up to the opening of the pit stop window in lap 11. After all changes, it was the Aston Martin with Rodrigue Gillion again on the lead. The young Belgian resisted fiercely but had to let Lewandowski past in lap 19. Third was Janosz ahead of Blazek and Solieri.
