OUTCOME: Nürburgring’s Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series
LEADERBOARD: Post Rd4 Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series
In the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series held at Nürburgring, Sandy Mitchell showed exceptional class, earning a crucial win that propelled the K-Pax Racing Lamborghini squad into the title race with only one race remaining in the season.
Mitchell exhibited masterful skill from pole position, driving his Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to an easy win, leading every single lap and also clocking the fastest lap of the race. Despite Mitchell’s flawless performance, Rutronik Racing’s Laurin Heinrich’s second position brings the team a step closer to this year’s championship, barring any mishaps in the last race in Barcelona.
With the Silver and Gold categories locked in a tie until the fourth round, the team that emerged victorious was sure to lead the championship. Capitalizing on this, Boutsen VDS emerged victorious with Cesar Gazeau, while Team WRT’s BMW, driven by Calan Williams fought back to second position in Gold, even as he had to concede to Charlie Fagg’s Optimum McLaren in this race.
Mitchell had a stellar start to his Friday, both in reality and metaphorically, claiming his second pole position of the season in a competition where the top 18 drivers were separated by only a second. Both the Lamborghinis and BMWs proved perfect for the contours of the Nürburgring, with Williams taking up the second place ahead of Dan Haper’s ROWE Racing M4 and Jordan Pepper’s Iron Lynx Huracan ranking fourth.
However, all hopes for BMW claiming the top prize were shattered as confusion reigned at turn one. Mitchell, leading the pack to the hairpin, was lucky to avoid a chain-reaction crash when Adam Eteki’s Boutsen VDS Audi nudged the rear of Alex Aka’s Tresor Attempto R8, sending it skidding across the track. This resulted in the leading BMW drivers – Williams, Harper, and Sheldon van der Linde, losing valuable time.
This chaos paved way for Heinrich to skillfully steer the Rutronik Porsche into second place behind Mitchell. Despite his attempts, Heinrich could not lessen Mitchell’s lead, who had a four-second advantage when the pit window opened. Mitchell took the opportunity to extend the gap further out of undercut range, before executing a seamless stop and rejoining the race with a few seconds advantage. From there on, he remained unchallenged.
Heinrich clinched a clear second place to widen Rutronik’s Pro class points lead, with K-Pax’s win elevating it to second in the standings. Ayhancan Güven leapfrogged Pepper to snatch the third spot ahead of him.
The BMWs provided an interesting spectacle, as they battled their way through the field with noteworthy performances from van der Linde, Williams and Harper. Van der Linde fared best, securing a fifth place that earned enough points to hold Rutronik’s title celebrations at bay. Harper would have followed suit, but a few incidents left him at eighth place.
Thomas Drouet secured the sixth place for Akkodis ASP Team, being the top-placed Mercedes-AMG, with Cesar Gazeau coming in seventh to secure the Silver class win. Fagg navigated through a tricky race to ninth and the Gold win. Despite a good start within the top five, a pit-stop error and last-lap collision pushed him back, but he managed a recovery to finish ahead of his class challenger Williams, who had a narrow escape.
A thrilling contest with Silver championship contender Marius Zug’s Mercedes-AMG ended when Zug skidded massively through the Schumacher Esses allowing Williams to run parallel, and then Zug took a heavy spin when Alexey Nesov tried to squeeze between the two Gold cars, causing a collision from which Williams was lucky to come unscathed. Zug managed to recover to fourth place in class, maintaining the pressure on the WRT team as they head for the season finale.
The concluding round of the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series is set to be held at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya from September 29 to October 1.
