FIA GT4 European Cup - Monza

Eric De Doncker all but claimed Monza as his own over a very wet weekend, taking two wins and a second place in his Motorsport98 Mustang FR500C.

The Belgian’s dominance began in qualifying, taking pole in both sessions (the first session rather confusingly setting the grid for both the second race and the longer third race) ahead of a trio of Aston Martin N24s on both occasions; although he did his best to stymie his own efforts by hitting the parc fermé barriers shortly before the start of race one.

Despite this, De Doncker stayed at the head of the pack for the first lap before losing out to the rapid Jurgen van Hover in the appropriately named Speedlover N24. Michael Mallock managed to avoid Nikolaus Meyr-Melnhof as the latter crashed out on lap one in the second Speedlover Aston and was immediately embroiled in a fight for third with Hans Hugenholz, who took the place on lap three. Hugenholz held onto the podium place for several laps before being forced to pit on lap seven, indicating problems for his Aston.

The top three places stayed as they were for the remainder of the race, with the cars spreading out at the rate of a second a lap.

The opening laps of the second race saw a similar scenario with the same three cars battling it out. Again van Hover forced his way into the lead on lap three (after the first two laps had taken place behind the safety car due to the conditions), but this time De Doncker was ready to react and retook the lead a lap later; quickly pulling out a significant advantage over his pursuers over the next couple of laps.

Mallock was now within a second of Van Hover in the RF Williams N24, but was denied the opportunity to challenge when the Speedlover car pitted on lap seven. With the Mustang so far ahead with just three more laps remaining, and with Guido Kenis’ BMW Z4 several seconds further back in third, Mallock just had to bring the car home.

The third race of the meeting would see a longer format (50 minutes) and, for some cars, two drivers. Alas, the pouring rain would again make conditions treacherous and negated the possibility of any real racing excitement. Eric De Doncker led throughout in the Mustang and came home 14 seconds clear of Andre Grammatico’s BMW Z4; while in third place was the Sports Light KTM X-Bow of Dennis Retera and Christophe Haase.