Race 1
Grégory Guilvert and Paul Petit claimed their first victory of the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club season in a turbulent opening race at Spa where the duo led home a one-two finish for the Team Speedcar Audi team.
A long opening stint and late driver change laid the foundations for Petit to claim his maiden overall win, while Guilvert scored his first since Barcelona 2021. Championship leaders Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani turned around a tough qualifying to come home 2.7s behind and extend their points cushion.
Hendrik Still and Joachim Bölting took their fourth Pro-Am win in the opening five races for W&S Motorsport, while the German team also blew the Am class title race wide open with Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg winning after trouble hit the points-leading Chazel Technologie Course BMW.
SILVER:
Guilvert qualified the car fifth overall and survived a dramatic start to move up to third on the first tour. A multi-car clash further back eliminated the title-chasing Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang among others and summoned an early Safety Car.
Amid the chaos, Still had managed to drag past pole position man Josh Rattican to lead, with Guilvert shadowing the top two when racing resumed after the cleanup. A second caution period followed soon after when Hadrien David ploughed into the gravel with his damaged Toyota, meaning the second and third-placed cars in the Silver points were both out early.
That presented a big chance to score, and when racing resumed, Guilvert made the call to run deep into the pit window to find clean air. The combination of his rapid in-lap and a swift switch to Petit helped the Audi vault into the lead, with Petit filtering back in with a few seconds’ advantage.
Another key pit call came from Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport, which opted to pit Berkay Besler from seventh at the first chance, and his team-mate Gabriele Piana put on a show afterwards with a stunning stint. Rejoining fourth, Piana pulled a superb pass on Consani at Les Combes, and then closed on Rattican’s team-mate McKenzy Cresswell. He tried around the outside of the chicane for second, but contact spun the McLaren and earned Piana a 10-second penalty. Even though the #12 BMW caught and passed Petit on the final lap, the penalty dropped Piana to fourth in the final result, leaving Petit to take the win ahead of Consani and the CMR Ginetta of Mike Simpson/Ethan Gialdini.
PRO-AM:
W&S Motorsport pair Still and Bölting withstood heavy pressure to record their fourth win of the year, and extend their points cushion at the head of the class.
The early Safety Cars prevented Still from building a gap at the head of the field across the first half, but he did at least manage to put seven cars between himself and his closest class rival, Victor Bouveng in the Schuberth Motorsport BMW.
That gap was eroded over the second half when Bölting took over and lost time as the Silver leaders filtered past, with Bouveng’s team-mate Joachim Walde closing to within half-a-second of the lead Porsche. Despite the pressure, Bölting proved unshakable to score a big result. Emil Skärås and Hans Holmlund completed the podium in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden Supra.
AM:
The biggest casualties of the start chaos came in the Am class, with damage for points leaders Antoni de Barn and Jean-Mathieu Leandri opening the door for Blickle and Kronberg to score big.
With both class pole-sitter Julien Ripert’s Team Speedcar Audi and de Barn’s Chazel Technologie Course BMW out with damage at La Source, Blickle picked his way through to lead, executed a clean stop and Kronberg did the rest, pulling comfortably clear of Bernd Schaible and Tobias Erdmann in the Seyffarth Motorsport Audi. Mats Olsson and Stefan Nilsson completed the podium in their Schubert BMW.
Race 2
Gabriele Piana and Berkay Besler withstood heavy late pressure to claim their first win of the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club season in a much shortened second outing at Spa.
Having been denied victory on Friday by a penalty for contact, Besler and Piana made amends with a strong drive in Race 2, holding off the Elite Motorsport McLaren of McKenzy Cresswell and Josh Rattican throughout.
The race was red-flagged on lap 1 after a multi-car accident at Raidillon om Lap 1, triggered by a contact on Paul Petit’s Audi from the #11 Borussia Otomotiv BMW that, together with the leading team car, had straightlined Eau Rouge/ Raidillon, that sent the Audi spinning to the outside then, with rear suspension damage, back into the middle of the track as the whole field approached at speed.
The in-car video from Paul Petit is a tough watch.
View this post on Instagram
Mercifully there were no major injuries caused as a result, but six cars were out pretty much on the spot and the BMW retired soon afterwards.
After a disappointing retirement last night, the PB Racing Lotus of Alberto Naska and Stefano D’Aste scored a popular Pro-Am win, while W&S Motorsport Porsche pair Max Kronberg and Daniel Blickle drew level at the top of the Am class standings with a second victory.
SILVER:
With Piana starting the #12 BMW on the front row alongside Race 1 rival Cresswell, we appeared set for a repeat of the battle that cost the BMW dearly on Friday night.
This time though the pair got away cleanly, with Cresswell leading into La Source and fending off Piana up Eau Rouge. The drama began when Paul Petit’s Race 1-winning Team Speedcar Audi was tipped around at Raidillon, spinning back across the pack. The resulting contact took six cars out of the running. All drivers involved were checked and cleared with Matteo Nomblot (#128 AV Racing Porsche) being transferred to the medical centre for checks before also being released.
The accident led to a lengthy clean-up, and 28 minutes remained when the race restarted. Cresswell led but could do nothing to stop Piana when the BMW got a draft up the Kemmel Straight and completed a switchback into Les Combes.
Cresswell kept the pressure on and the two leaders pitted together with the BMW, now in the hands of Besler, rejoining fractionally ahead of Rattican in the McLaren. Despite pushing hard across the closing minutes, Rattican could find no way past Besler.
Another strong pit call from Team Speedcar helped Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche into the final podium spot. Consani made his way to seventh in the first stint and then ran long in the pit window, pumping in strong laps in clean air before handing to Lariche at the last moment. The work paid off with Lariche rejoining third and holding off Benjamin Lessennes/Ricardo van der Ende’s L’Espace Bienvenue BMW and the RAFA Racing by RACE LAB McLaren of Callum Davies/Charlie Hart.
PRO-AM:
Having lost the chance to fight in Race 1 to an electrical issue at the start, PB Racing Lotus drivers Naska and D’Aste were rewarded with their first win of the season on Saturday.
Naska started the Lotus on pole and made it through the early chaos, holding a spot in the top eight overall before handing across to D’Aste for the run to the flag. The Italian rejoined just ahead of Emil Skärås and Hans Holmlund’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden Supra, and managed to keep the Swede behind, the winning margin being just 0.3s at the flag. Joachim Bölting and Hendrik Still claimed the final podium spot to cement their points lead.
AM:
W&S Motorsport Porsche drivers Kronberg and Blickle completed a perfect Spa weekend by claiming their second win from pole in Belgium, and in doing so drew level in the class points race.
Kronberg ended his first stint well clear of the class opposition, with Blickle continuing to keep a handful of cars between him and the chasing #317 Chazel Technologie Course BMW. With Jean-Mathieu Leandri and Antoni de Barn retiring from Race 1 and scoring for second here, it means the two cars are tied at the top of the points table. Father-and-son Mikael and Christoffer Brunnhagen scored a second podium of the day for Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden after a strong display.
The GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club next heads to Misano in Italy across the weekend of July 18-20.
Pics SRO/ JEP
