Race 1
Leonardo Gorini and Carlo Tamburini charged to their second Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli victory of the season in an entertaining twilight first race at Misano on Saturday evening.
The #1 Maserati GT2 climbed from third on the grid to the head of the field after mandatory pit stops cycled through to confirm victory for Gorini and Tamburini by a gap of 21 seconds, on a home event for the Italian LP Racing team.
Second place went to the ever-consistent Team MZR for a third race in succession. Martin Koch handed the #812 KTM over to Reinhard Kofler in the second half of the 50-minute race, and the Austrian picked off his rivals to take the runner-up spot.
LP Racing also had reason to celebrate in the Am class, as Prette’s third place on the road was enough to seal his second Am success of the term. He swapped places with the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG of Gilles Vannelet and Jean-Luc Beaubelique on three occasions, the #2 Maserati coming out on top in a thrilling battle.
Motorsport 98 seperated the two as Eric De Doncker and rapid team-mate Loris Hezemans surged from 13th to fourth overall. Behind the #87 Mercedes, Alexandre Leroy grabbed a personal best result of sixth for another Am class podium visit.
Prette was the star of qualifying and started from pole position in the #2 Maserati, but an opportunistic move at turn one by Vannelet eased the Akkodis ASP Mercedes into the early lead. For the remainder of the first stint, Prette chased the Frenchman hard until finally finding a way up the inside of Vannelet under braking for turn four.
Behind the pair, Gorini pitted at the earliest opportunity to hand car #1 over to Tamburini, and it would be a key factor in the fight for the win. With less compensation seconds to serve after a retirement at Circuit Paul Ricard, Tamburini inherited the lead and would sprint clear for the pair’s second win.
Beaubelique took over from Vannelet in second but soon lost out to Prette in a dramatic three-wide move at turn four, with Kofler’s KTM also involved. The end result was Kofler taking two spots in one lap to seal second place for Team MZR with Koch.
Prette completed the top three and finished best of the Am runners as a result, but behind them an exceptional stint by Hezemans propelled the Dutchman and De Doncker to fourth place for Motorsport 98 ahead of the similar Mercedes of Beaubelique and Vannelet.
Leroy was next up for TFT Racing to also round out the Am class podium in the #24 Maserati. Stéphane Perrin and Jörg Viebahn were also big movers for NM Racing as they climbed from 11th to seventh in their Mercedes-AMG.
The top 10 was rounded out by the trio of True Racing’s Sehdi Sarmini and Klaus Angerhofer (KTM X-BOW), Pascal Gibon and Christophe Bourret (Mercedes-AMG) and the LP Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2 of Michael Doppelmayr and Pierre Kaffer.
Race 2
The Team MZR duo of Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch claimed their first Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli win of 2024 in race two at Misano on Sunday morning, while Alexandre Leroy grabbed a maiden Am victory.
After three successive second place finishes to start their season, Kofler and Koch went one better thanks to a fighting drive in the second 50-minute race on Sunday morning, closing the champioship lead to just one point with victory.
Kofler lunged up the inside of Saturday’s race one winner Carlo Tamburini during the opening stint to grab a lead the #812 KTM X-BOW GT2 would ultimately never lose, as Koch survived the distraction of a loose door to bring the car to the chequered flag first.
Tamburini and Leonardo Gorini battled back from their compensation seconds in the second stint to finish second with the #1 LP Racing Maserati GT2, inheriting the points lead. The recovering Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen charged from 11th to the final spot on the podium, ahead of Loris Hezemans and Eric De Doncker in the Motorsport 98 Mercedes-AMG.
Alexandre Leroy came out on top of an intense battle for fifth place with True Racing’s Sehdi Sarmini in the closing stages, sealing a first Am class win in Fanatec GT2 for himself and TFT Racing.
Race two started in dramatic fashion. Tamburini led Kofler away but a mid-pack collision removed four cars including the #2 car of Prette.
Three Mercedes-AMG crews were also eliminated, including NM Racing and the Akkodis ASP pairings of Mauro Ricci and series returnee Ludovic Badey in the #61, plus the #87 of Beaubelique and Vannelet.
On the restart, the lead battle was closely fought with four cars covered by mere tenths of a second until lap 13. Kofler had a teasing look inside Tamburini, before making a decisive move stick under braking for turn 14.
Tamburini quickly handed over to Gorini while Kofler and Kaffer stayed out. The pace of the top two was enough to allow Team MZR to retain the lead, with Koch behind the wheel. Despite a troublesome door issue, Koch continued unphased to bring the #812 KTM X-BOW to claim its first win of the term.
Gorini climbed the order to finish second after passing De Doncker and the flying Razoon – More Than Racing KTM X-BOW of Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen in quick succession. The latter picked up their best result of the term with third, having started car #80 down in 11th.
Hezemans and De Doncker made it two fourth place finishes in Misano for Motorsport 98, Leroy rounding out the top five and claiming a first Am class win after squeezing past Sarmini’s True Racing machine with a cutback move onto the back straight.
The TFT Racing Maserati driver leaves Italy with a five-point Am class lead over the unlucky Prette. Tamburini and Gorini lead Kofler and Koch by one point in Pro-Am.
The Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli field heads to Spa-Francorchamps for two races next month, joining the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa itinerary as the Belgian endurance classic marks its centenary edition on 25–30 June.
