Levente Révész has retaken the provisional lead in the standings of the International GT Open after winning Race 1 on a warm Saturday afternoon in Paul Ricard, his third race win of the year, the second together with Maxi Götz, at the wheel of the Team Motopark Mercedes AMG.
The Hungarian overtook the GetSpeed AMG of Anthony Bartone and Fabian Schiller in the final phase of the race, with the AF Corse Ferrari 296 of Carl Bennett-Tommaso Mosca finishing third.
With the win, Révész retakes the lead in the standings, nine points clear of the Eastalent Audi of Reicher-Haase, luckless in the Saturday race scoring no points.
Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann (SPS Mercedes) retook the points lead in Pro-Am after beating the Saintéloc Racing Audi of Michaël Blanchemain-Marcus Paverud and the BDR Grupo Prom Mercedes of Luis Michaël Dörrbecker and Amaury Bonduel.
In Am, Gino Forgione and Michele Rugolo (AF Corse Ferrari) extended their lead, ahead of Ameerh Naran (Vimana by GetSpeed Mercedes) and the Team Thor Porsche of the Icelandic duo Thorvaldur Gissurarson and Audunn Gudmunsson.
At the start, Fabian Schiller, on pole for the second time this year, kept the advantage, while Basz passed Götz (but would have to give back the position acquired with the car off track), while in the middle of the group Jans touched Reicher, who spun and rejoined right at the back of the field. The Luxembourger would get a 10-second penalty.
Schiller remained under pressure from Götz and Basz, with Pulcini fourth, resisting stoically the attacks of Baumann, who led a compact group including Lebbon, Kell, Bennett and Dunner, (who had won an excellent battle with Doquin).
On lap 10, Lebbon took fifth from Baumann, while at the top the advantage of Schiller dropped to 1.5 seconds. In the meantime Reicher had climbed back to P13 and Naran led in Am.
As the window for driver change opened, Pulcini, after defending strenuously his fourth position, finally had to capitulate against Lebbon. After all changes, Bartone led by 1.7 seconds on Revesz, while Marci Jedlinski, third, spun and dropped out of the top ten. Third then was inherited by Emson, but he was soon passed by Mosca.
Macdonald meanwhile was fifth ahead of Pierburg (leading in Pro-Am), then Porter and the two Lambos of Rogalski and Petrov, who had passed Rumpfkeil. Rugolo led in Am ahead of Naran and West.
Revesz caught Bartone and passed him on lap 30, right after a scary moment on the straight, when Aron, Paverud and Haase came by three abreast. The two Audis collided and Haase was sent in a scary spin but somehow managed to avoid crashing into the wall.
The last phases saw Mosca closing the gap significantly but the Italian would remain in third position. The British trio Macdonald-Emson-Porter followed ahead of Pro-Am winner Pierburg, Aron, Petrov and Paverud. Rugolo won in Am ahead of Naran and Gudmundsson.
