Race 1
Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase took their second win of the season in Saturday’s Race 1 at the Hungaroring.
The Eastalent Racing Audi pair emerged in a thrilling finale when rain reshuffled the top car pack.
In treacherous conditions, the three cars then leading, the #20 SPS Mercedes, the #27 Spirit of Race Ferrari, and the #6 GetSpeed Mercedes, all made mistakes under the pressure of the Eastalent Audi and of the Spirit of Race Ferrari of Nicola Marinangeli-Vincent Abril who took their best seasonal result so far and finished ahead of the Motopark Mercedes of Diego Menchaca-Marcos Siebert, who retake the lead in the provisional standings.
“The first two-thirds of the race was pretty uneventful, as often in this track”, commented the winners, “but when the rain started, things changed and arrived a chance to put pressure on the guys ahead and hope they made mistakes, which happened”.
Marco Pulcini-Eddie Cheever (Spirit of Race Ferrari) salvaged the Pro-Am win, their third, to extend their lead in the class, finishing ahead Ernst Kirchmays-David Fumanelli (racing one Ferrari) and Marcelo Hahn-Allam Khodair (AF Corse Ferrari).
In Am, second success of the season for Kiki San Nana-Adam Osieka in the GetSpeed Mercedes ahead of standing leader Giuseppe Cipriani (Barone Rampante Lambo) and Heiko Neumann- Timo Rumpfkeil (Motopark Mercedes).
At the start (on a dry track after storms in the morning), Dominik Baumann who took his second pole of the year in the wet, kept the advantage ahead of Cheever, challenged by Basz, followed by Schiller, Siebert, L.Pulcini, Marinangeli, Reicher, Khodair and Fontana. There were a few contacts in the first corners on lap 1, with the main victims being Aka, who had to pit, and Petrov, who spun.
After an otherwise fairly uneventful first part of the race, with Baumann kept the lead but was not able to pull away, keeping an advantage of one second.
By the time the pit stop window opened on lap 14, the chasing group led by Basz was 7 seconds behind.
After all driver changes were completed, Pitamber led by 3 seconds on M.Pulcini, who managed to hold second from Bartone, Menchaca and Haase.
The battle between the three, soon joined by Abril, was intense but the element that would spice the end of the race was the rain, which reappeared in the closing laps with increasing intensity.
Bartone, who had to let past both Haase and Abril, was the first to lose the car and lightly touched the wall, while Neumann (then leading in Am), Hahn and M.Jedlinski also had off-track excursions.
Haase caught Pulcini and stole second, followed closely by Abril. The two were soon putting pressure on Pitamber who spun on the final lap, opening the way to the win to Haase, followed by Abril and Menchaca. Rookie Primm took an excellent fourth, ahead of a disappointed Pitamber and M.Pulcini, who retained the Pro-Am win ahead of Fumanelli and Hahn. Osieka won in Am ahead of Cipriani and Neumann.
Race 2
The Sunday race at the Hungaroring was another one ending with a thrilling finale, which saw the Lamborghini Huracan of Oregon Team driven by Simon Connor Primm and Leonardo Pulcini taking the first win of the season for the #63 and the second for the Italian team.
German teenager Primm, in his debut in the series, had put the car in fifth in the first stint, while Pulcini, exiting second from the pit stop, saw his charge on Alessandro Cozzi, in the #25 AF Corse Ferrari that another debuting teenager, Eliseo Donno, had driven in the lead from pole position throughout the first stint, succeed in the penultimate lap when the leader, under pressure, made a slight mistake.
The Car Collection Porsche of Gustav Bergström-Nico Menzel took an excellent second ahead of the SPS Mercedes of Mikaeel Pitamber-Dominik Baumann, who now take the lead in the standings by 6 points.
In Pro-Am, the fourth seasonal success for the Ferrari of class leaders Marco Pulcini-Eddie Cheever ahead of the Mercedes of Marcelo Hahn-Allam Khodair (AF Corse) and Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz (Olimp Racing). Kiki San Nana-Adam Osieka (Getspeed Mercedes) doubled yesterday’s success in Am, beating the Lambo of points leader Giuseppe Cipriani (Barone Rampante) and the Ferrari of Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski (Olimp Racing).
At the start, Eliseo Donno, the 19-year-old debuting driver from AF Corse, kept his advantage, but behind him Haase hit Abril and Menchaca under braking for turn 1, the Mexican spinning.
One lap later, at the end of the straight, Neumann missed the braking point collecting his teammate Strømsted, with Menchaca already in the box for repairs, it was a nightmare start of the race for Motopark’s three cars.
The safety car was out for three laps, with Donno in the lead, followed by Fumanelli, Menzel, Mettler, Primm, Pitamber, Abril, Fluxá, Paul, and Haase. Korzeniowski led in Am.
The positions remained stable until the driver changes (lap 12). After all changes, Cozzi led by 9 seconds on Bergström, Pulcini, Baumann, Dunner, Müller, Schiller, Deledda, Marinangeli and Petrov.
The focus was then on how fast Bergström and Pulcini, who were extremely close together, could catch Cozzi, who resisted well until two laps from the end. In the meantime, Pulcini had passed Bergström and there had been a contact between Siebert and Reicher, with the Audi out of the race and the Mercedes dropping back significantly.
On the penultimate lap, heading to T9, Cozzi went wide, rejoining the track and causing a light contact with Pulcini whose quick reaction prevented a more serious collision.
Cozzi went off-track again but rejoined to take a final 12th (4th in the Pro-Am class).
Pulcini took the win ahead of Bergström and Baumann, Schiller, Marinangeli and Dunner. In Pro-Am, Cheever beat Khodair and Basz, and in Am, Nana doubled yesterday’s win ahead of Cipriani and S.Jedlinski.
Pics: GT Open/ Photospeedy
