Saintéloc Fabien Michal and Grégory Guilvert (Saintéloc Racing – Audi R8 LMS) dominated at the Nogaro circuit and won both races of the Coupê des Paques to become the first double winner of the inaugural GT4 South European Series. On Monday, the French duo repeated the Saturday’s scenario; they first took the pole and then dominantly won in the 60-minute race.
The race started under the dominance of the three Saintéloc Racing cars with Guilvert leading the way in front of teammates Simon Gachet and Anthony Beltoise. Vincent Beltoise (Mirage Racing – Alpine A110 GT4) and Benjamin Lariche (Team Speed Car – Alpine A110 GT4) were fourth and fifth respectively, while (Veloso Motorsport – Mercedes-AMG GT4) was climbing positions overall, moving up to fifth before the compulsory pit stop.
After the pit stop window Saintéloc Racing saw Olivier Esteves (Saintéloc Racing – Audi R8 LMS) losing time and then forced to stop. Things were about to get worse for the French team as Eric Debard, who received the car from Gachet, was handed a stop and go penalty for entering in the pits 0.5s after the pit window closes.
Lison (Mirage Racing – Alpine A110 GT4) inherited the second position, adding a second place finish to yesterday’s podium. The podium was completed by the Portuguese entry of Veloso Motorsport. Miguel Cristóvão kept the strong pace of Abreu and benefitted from Debard troubles to be promoted to third place.
Pierre-André Nicolas and Christophe Vernet (ABM Grand Prix – Ginetta G55 GT4) rounded off the top-five, collecting points for the first time in the series.
In Am Cup, Mirage Racing’s Alex and Rémi Van Straaten made it two wins from two. After a disappointing result yesterday Marmaduke Hall and Edward Moore (Tockwith Motorsport – Ginetta G50 GT4) took it to the finish line, winning the GTC Class.
Less luck had yesterday’s second place finisher as Robert Consani (Team Speed Car – Alpine A110 GT4) was forced to retire with gearbox problems.
All of that sees Michal and Guilvert leading the championship with a 17-point lead over Vincent Beltoise and Lison, while Cristóvão and Abreu occupy third.
The Spanish circuit of Jarama hosts round two of the inaugural season’s GT4 South European Series campaign on June 15/16.
DRIVERS QUOTES:
Grégory Guilvert (1st Pro-Am Cup): “We are quite happy with two first places in the GT4 South European Series this weekend. Fabien and I are a strong line up and the team is one of the strongest in the field. We hope to keep finishing on the podium and be consistent in the GT4 races to come.”
Vincent Beltoise (2nd Pro-Am Cup): “The race was very good but I did make a few mistakes on my stint and I lost a few positions overall. My teammate did an awesome job and we are very happy to return to the podium. We finished in third yesterday and second today. All in all it was a good weekend for us in the GT4 South European Series.”
Francisco Abreu (3rd Pro Am Cup): “I made a really good start and gained a few positions in a very competitive field. We kept climbing positions, we did a faultless pit-stop. Miguel had a very good second stint too. In the end we got that little stroke of luck that we hadn’t yesterday. This result compensates all the team’s effort over the weekend. We knew before this was going to be the toughest race weekend of the season. This result gives motivation for the races to come.”
Rémi Van Straaten (1st Am Cup): “It was a good weekend for us in the GT4 South European Series. My brother did a good stint but the level is quite high and it is tough to keep a strong pace all the way. In the second stint the tires were worn and slippery, and I did a spin. We will learn from the mistakes and improve from here.”
Marmaduke Hall (1st GTC Cup): “We had a couple of issues this weekend but this race was OK. It was just a question of bringing it home, making sure the engine was alright. It has been a fantastic weekend. The atmosphere has been great and we really enjoyed it.”
