Eastalent Racing Audi Clinches Title On Countback
On Friday, the Panel of Stewards and GT Sport were officially notified of the decision of the Court of Appeal of the Spanish Federation (RFEdA) regarding an appeal lodged by Team Motopark to the results of Race 2 at the Red Bull Ring.
The Court of Appeal has decided to accept the appeal and invalidated altogether the results of Race 2 at the Red Bull Ring.
All teams have a right to appeal the decision if they so wish.
Race 1
The fight for the International GT Open title in all classes went to the wire after Saturday’s penultimate race of the season at Barcelona.
The Eastalent Racing Audi of Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase took a long-awaited and well-deserved maiden win leaving the Austrian outfit is now the new leader in the revised standings after a ‘zero point’ day for both the Optimum Motorsport of Sam De Haan- Charlie Fagg, caught in a first corner accident, and the Motopark Mercedes of Diego Menchaca (joined by Albert Costa at Barcelona) who could not do better than 13th.
Race 1
At the start, poleman Schiller was sandwiched by Mettler and Fagg, but at first corner, the McLaren was hit by Basz from the back with chaos the result, with Schiller, Fagg and Mettler spinning and getting stranded at the first corner. The safety car scrambled, while Mettler and Schiller managed to bring back their cars to the pits.
The race restarted on lap 4, with Basz in the lead ahead of Chovet, Fumanelli, Reicher, L.Proctor, Marinangeli, Perolini, Schirò, Blom and Pulcini. There was more drama shortly after (lap 5) when Costa, 12th, touched Montermini ahead of him, who spun and collected Pitamber.
Basz had to serve a drive-through for the incident at the start, which left Chovet leading by one second on Fumanelli and 5 on Proctor, followed by Reicher, Marinangeli, Costa, Schirò, Perolini and Blom.
On lap 13, though, Pulcini closed on Stanley they had contact, collecting Perolini, with the two Italians finishing in the sand. The safety car was out again. In the meantime, Basz was dealt a 5-second penalty for track limits.
At the restart, Costa took third right before the opening of the driver change window. While Chovet stopped, the fight continued on track, with Costa stealing the lead from Fumanelli and Basz fighting with Proctor and Schirò, while Stanley collided with Proctor, sending him into a spin. Rumpfkeil was first in Am. Both Costa and Stanley got a drive-through.
After all stops (lap 32), Haase led by 4 seconds on Agostini, then much further back, Paul, Pavlovic who had passed Rosi for first in Pro-Am, Cipriani (first in Am), Jans, Jousset, Bartone and Neumann. Rosi spuns into the gravel and the safety car is out for third time living only a pair of uneventful racing laps to the finish.
Haase would take the win ahead of Agostini and Paul, Pavlovic taking Pro-Am honours and an excellent fourth, followed by Jans, Bartone and the top 3 in Am, Cipriani, Grunewald and Jefferies, all in the top-8 overall.
23-20 GTO Barcelona Race 1 Result
Race 2
Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase are the 2023 GT Open Champions, at the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS of the Austrian squad Eastalent Racing, which also netted the pair the Teams’ crown. It was a nerve-wracking and drama-filled final battle in Race 2 at Barcelonathat left Reicher and Haase, 6th on the day on track, finishing tied on net points and number of wins (one) with Diego Menchaca (Motopark Mercedes) but prevailing on the number of second positions (four to three).
The last race was won in style by Mikaeel Pitamber and Dominik Baumann in the SPS Mercedes ahead of another AMG, the Al Manar Getspeed car of Faisal Al Zubair-Fabian Schiller and the Optimum McLaren of Sam De Haan-Charlie Fagg, who finished third also in the standings, ahead of the fourth title bidders, Max Paul-Pierre Louis Chovet (Oregon Lambo), fifth in the final race. The first four in the championship finished covered by six points, proving how fierce the season and the final battle were.
Marco Pulcini and Eddie Cheever (AF Corse Ferrari) completed their Pro-Am title with a fourth race win.
In Am, Giuseppe Cipriani (Barone Rampante Lambo) doubled yesterday’s success although the class title went to Heiko Neumann and Timo Rumpfkeil in the Motopark Mercedes.
For the fifth time this season, Max Paul was on pole with another title contender, Christopher Haase, next to him.
At the start, the German took a perfect getaway, followed by Baumann and Arrow, soon passed by Agostini and Haase.
In turn 2, Jedlinski went wide and got sideways, collected by Jousset. The safety car was deployed with Paul ahead of Baumann, Agostini, Haase, Arrow, Korzeniowski, Al Zubair, De Haan and Pavlovic. Menchaca down in 25th having started from the pits because of a last-minute issue with refueling.
At the restart, in lap 4, Haase passed Agostini to take third but had to go off-track to avoid a responding attack by the Italian. Sernagiotto and Bartone made contact, with the Mercedes ending in the gravel and the safety car was again deployed.
Two laps later the race resumed, with positions and gaps stable: Paul led ahead of Baumann, Haase, Agostini, Arrow, Korzeniowski (first in Am), De Haan, Al Zubair, Jefferies and Cheever, who had taken the Pro-Am lead from Pavlovic. In lap 11 the pit stop window opened.
After all stops (lap 17), Pitamber led ahead of Fagg, then Schiller, Perolini, Reicher, Marinangeli, Chovet, Costa, Saada and Pulcini. In the lead, the duel between Pitamber and Fagg was intense, while Schiller closed progressively on the duo and there was a fierce battle for fifth between Reicher, Marinangeli, Chovet and Costa.
Lap 24, and Schiller was right behind Pitamber and Fagg, while Marinangeli passed Reicher and Costa passed Chovet, in both cases with a little contact, shortly before Perolini (4th) ended up in the gravel after contact with Marinangeli and Costa stole fifth from Reicher. The safety car was out again leaving only two final laps, where nothing major happened.
Pitamber took the ahead of Schiller, Fagg, Costa, Chovet, Reicher and Pulcini (first in Pro-Am), while Marinangeli dropped to 12th following a 3-second penalty for causing a collision and Cipriani took another win in Am.
23-21 GT Open Barcelona Race 2 Result
FINAL OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 13 OF 13
Overall:
1. Reicher-Haase, 109 points;
2. Menchaca, 109 (111);
3. Fagg-De Haan, 105;
4. Chovert-Paul, 103 (104);
5. Siebert, 97;
6. Agostini-Marinangeli, 75 (77); etc
Pro-Am:
1. Cheever-Pulcini, 69 points;
2. Jedlinski-Basz, 58;
3. Jans-Blom, 58;
4. Schirò-Rosi, 43;
5. Jao Javanil- Pavlovic, 40; etc
Am:
1. Neumann-Rumpfkeil, 74 (78) points;
2. Cipriani, 73 ;
3. Grunewald-Saada, 68 (71);
4. Kirchmayr-Baron, 59 (63);
5. Cozzi-Sernagiotto, 51; etc
Teams:
1. Eastalent Racing, 67 points;
2. Motopark, 65;
3. Optimum Motorsport, 62;
4. Oregon Team, 61;
5. AF Corse, 46;
6. Almanar Getspeed, 42; etc