The battle for the GT Open remains completely alive, as the two top contenders took first and second in a very warm afternoon in Race 1 at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya. Championship leader Levente Révész conquered the fourth success of the season, the third together with Maxi Götz, in the Motopark Mercedes, right ahead of direct rivals, Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase in the Eastalent Racing Audi. Révész extends to six points his advantage in the standings. Third in the race were Anthony Bartone and Fabian Schiller, in the GetSpeed Mercedes.
It was a very lively and closely fought race, with tight margins throughout, on a very warm afternoon. In Pro-Am, Dexter Müller and Yannick Mettler took a well-deserved first win of the season, in the SPS Mercedes while Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann, by finishing second, become the new class leaders by one point over GetSpeed teammates Steve Jans-Aaron Walker.
In Am, superb maiden win for Attila Zsigo and Dennis Waszek, in the Racing Trevor BMW, while there is a tie again at the top of the class standings between Gino Forgione-Michele Rugolo (AF Corse Ferrari) and Mark Sansom (Garage 59 McLaren), today 4th and 3rd, respectively.
THE RACE – In his second outing in the series, Josh Rattican (Greystone GT McLaren) took pole. The young Brit kept the advantage at the start, ahead of Götz, Schiller, Mettler, Kell, Bennett, Reicher, Porter, Petrov and Walker, but the race was eventful from even before the start, as Rogalski lost a wheel and Lebbon was hit by a mechanical failure. In the first lap, there are two separate incidents at the back, between Sansom and Naran, and between Hernandez and Gissurarson. The safety car is out from lap 2 to 5.
After the restart, Rattican leads by 1.5 seconds on Götz, then Schiller, Mettler, Kell, Kell, Bennett, Reicher, Buurman, Porter and Petrov. Positions do not change much and margins remain tight. When reaching the opening of the pit stop window in lap 15, Rattican’s advantage is barely two seconds, with Shiller, Mettler, Kell, Buurman and Reicher covered by less than ten seconds. Korzeniowski leads the Am class since the start.
After all stops, Révész is first, with a 3-second gap on Kelly, 6 on Bartone and 10 on Haase. Müller, Meakin, Mosca and Simonazzi follow, while in Am Zsigo is firstonWith those reduced gaps, it’s easy to anticipate a great battle, which indeed happens for second, while Révész keeps control up to the flag. Haase will finish second after passing Bartone and then Kell, with the American stealing P3 from the Brit in the closing lap. Meakin and Mosca complete the top 6. Müller wins in Pro-Am ahead of Baumann and Jans and Zsigo wins Am beating Naran and Hollings.
There are also more incidents, as Salaquarda hits Simonazzi on lap 31, sending him into a spin. In the last lap, Stanley rams Babini.