Levente Revesz and Matteo Cairoli, in one of the Mercedes of Team Motopark, took a resounding win in Race 2 at the Autódromo do Algarve. For both of them their maiden win in the series. The Hungarian and the Italian leave Portugal as the first provisional standings’ leaders.
In a sunny and warm day in Portugal the podium was completed by two duos of British young guns: Michal Porter and Zak Meakin were second in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren, ahead of Tom Lebbon and Tom Emson, in the Elite Motorsport Ferrari.
There were more happy faces at the end of the race, as ‘Hash’ and Alex Fontana (Car Collection Porsche) won in Pro-Am, rounding an excellent weekend which saw the Swiss taking the overall pole for Race 2, beating the SPS Mercedes of Valentin Pierburg-Dominik Baumann and Dexter Müller-Yannick Mettler.
Local hero Miguel Ramos delighted local fans with a win in Am, in the Garage 59 McLaren shared with Mark Sansom, ahead of the all Icelandic duo in the Team Thor Porsche, Audunn Gudmunsson and Thorvaldur Gissurarson, and yesterday’s winners Gino Forgione-Michele Rugolo (AF Corse Ferrari).
At the start, Alex Fontana, in pole for the first time, kept the advantage despite being challenged by Aron for a couple of corners, while Haase was third, followed by Nesov and Baumann.
The leading Porsche managed to build an advantage of 8 seconds by lap 10, with Aron being closely challenged by Haase for second. Following, in a quite compact group, were Baumann, Nesov, Revesz, Dunner, Maekin, Kell, Emson, Bonduel, Korzeniowski (first in Am), Petrov and Abril.
The fight between Aron and Haase was well alight with the nose of the Audi almost touching the exhausts of the Mercedes. Still, nothing changed up to the end of the first stint, with the window having opened in lap 14.
After all driver changes, Hash led with 13 seconds over Martinez and 15 over Reimann, Porter and Cairoli, followed by Lebbon, Kizilov, Neumann, Macdonald and Mosca, with S.Jedlinski keeping the advantage in Am.
After all changes, ‘Hash’ led with a 13-second gap on Ramirez and 15 on Reicher, Porter and Cairoli, followed by Lebbon, Kizilov, Neumann, Macdonald and Mosca.
S.Jedlinski was still first in Am. Things were bound to change, with Porter and Cairoli leading the charge and passing ‘Hash’ on lap 27. Lebbon was fourth ahead of Macdonald (who would receive a 5-second penalty for not serving the entire handicap), Reicher and Mosca.
The chequered flag dropped 3 thousandths of a second before completion of race time and, to be safe, Cairoli made an additional lap, but final positions were not impacted.
The Italian wins ahead of Porter, Lebbon, Mosca, Reicher and Macdonald. ‘Hash’ had dropped to seventh but retained the win in Pro-Am, while in Am, a titanic effort by Miguel Ramos allowed the local hero to win and add a new chapter to his GT Open tally.
