FIA GT3, Slovakia Ring - Race 1 Report

Bright sunshine, 26ºC, a few clouds and packed grandstands and a full grid of 27 GT3 race cars provided the perfect conditions for round nine of the FIA GT3 European Championship, held on Saturday afternoon on the Slovakia Ring.

From pole position it was the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 of Albert von Thurn und Taxis that led the field into the first corners, but whilst the leaders came through without a problem further down the field several drivers were less fortunate and a handful of cars spun trying to avoid the nr 35 BMW. The biggest victim was the Graff Racing Mercedes of Mike Parisy and Philippe Giauque which returned to the pit with damage to the rear.

Albert von Thurn und Taxis could get away from the two Heico Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 that were now second and third and after 10 laps he was just over a second clear of his rivals. By then the two Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW’s had hit trouble, sending one into retirement and the other still running but way down the order.

But on lap 10 things went wrong for the Euromaster sponsored Lamborghini as it suddenly slowed down with a left rear puncture. Von Thurn und Taxis would soon park his Lamborghini - despite getting a new tire - and retired from the race, resulting in a 1-2 for Heico Motorsport.

As the pit window opened on lap 13 the nr 44 Mercedes pitted, followed by the nr 45 the next time by and the third placed AF Corse Ferrari nr 50 on the following lap. The championship leading Ferrari came out behind the leading nr 45 Mercedes, but managed to get ahead of the second Mercedes and a three-way battle for the lead started. After 16 laps the gap between the top three was just a few tenths of a second.

Into turn 1 on lap 17 Francesco Castellacci moved to the inside of the leading Mercedes and took the lead from Hirsch. The Italian immediately pulled away, with Hirsch quickly being caught and then left behind by his team mate Brice Bosi.

Castellacci wasn’t going to hold on to his lead however as the Italian started to struggle with his tires and Bosi was able to catch up with the Ferrari again. On lap 25 the Mercedes found the perfect spot to overtake and moved into the lead. With the Heico Mercedes not having tire issues it quickly got away from the Ferrari.

Behind the two leaders Claudia Hürtgen was also lapping fast in the Michelin-shod BMW. After passing Dino Lunardi she closed a 19 seconds gap to the Mercedes of Pierre Hirsch in a matter of laps and started the fight for third place. Hirsch didn’t give up easily, which allowed Lunardi to join the fight and briefly passed both, but then Hürtgen performed a perfect overtaking maneuver and passed both rivals to take third place. Lunardi spun off in the final minutes, allowing the Team LMP Motorsport Aston Martin of Maxime Martin to take fourth after passing Hirsch on the last lap.

After one hour Brice Bosi took the chequered flag, taking the first win in the FIA GT3 European Championship for Mercedes. As a result six out of seven manufacturers in the championship have now won at least one race this season.