Tom Lebbon and Tom Emson took a dominant win from pole position in Race 1 at the Hungaroring, giving themselves and Elite Motorsport & Entire Race Engineering their respective maiden wins in the International GT Open.
“It’s never easy, especially with the heat, but we had no major issues except for the radio stopping functioning”, said Lebbon post-race.
In an all-British podium, they beat the McLarens of Michael Porter-Zac Meakin (Optimum Motorsport) and James Kell-Dean Macdonald (Greystone GT).
The Prancing Horse then took its first overall win of the season but also followed up with a hat-trick of wins taking the class victories in Pro-Am and Am too.
In Pro-Am, the Baron Motorsport’s 296 of Edoardo Bacci and Phillip Baron took the first success of the year, ahead of Dexter Müller-Yannick Metller (SPS Mercedes) and the Sanitéloc Racing Audi of Michael Blanchemain-Marcus Paverud.
In Am Gino Forgione and Michele Rugolo (AF Corse) won for the third time this season, preceding Mark Sansom-Alexander West (Garage 59 McLaren) and Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski (Olimp Racing Ferrari).
It was a smooth start in very hot weather, with Tom Lebbon, for the first time in pole with the Elite Ferrari, holding the advantage ahead of Aron, with Basz sneaking into third position ahead of Hesse, Reicher, Révész, Abril, Mettler, Porter and Pulcini.
While Lebbon pulled away gently, there was a big fight for third between Basz and Hesse, while Hash spun on lap 7 and Sansom led in Am.
As is often the case at the tight and tricky Hungaroring there were few major positional changes, but duels did continue with light contacts between Basz and Hesse, Bartone and Milota and Porter and Abril.
The pit stop window opened on lap 17. After all stops, Emson led by 14 seconds from Ramirez, then Meakin (-21”) who had passed M. Jedlinski, leading in Pro-Am, Rogalski and the duo Ellis-Haase, who were in a very fierce battle.
Alexander West meanwhile had taken the lead of the Am class.
The last laps saw the battles bubbling though Emson was fully in control in the lead, Ramirez was being pressed by Meakin, who passed on lap 36, but with four wheels off the track, which saw him dealt a 5-second penalty, with Kell stealing third in the final moments.
Rogalski passed Jedlinski, for fifth but none of the Poles would keep their good results: Jedlinski spinning leaving the win in Pro-Am to Bacci (ahead of Mettler and Paverud), while the Lambo slowed down on the final lap, leaving the way to Haase and Ellis.
Further back there was a three-way collision between Baumann, Doquin and Fontana, while Rugolo took the win in Am ahead of West and S.Jedlinski.
In the championship, by taking fourth ahead of Révész, Haase reduced the gap in the standings to one point.
