Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub took a second victory in the FFSA French GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps
Jodie Sloss and David Levy open their Am Cup records
The second half of the championship will start this Sunday at 4:10 p.m.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit and Spa Speedweek are hosting the third round of the FFSA French GT Championship this weekend. Held at nightfall, the fifth of the season's ten races was undoubtedly the craziest, with incidents and twists and turns right up to the last minute.

From the start, Lorens Lecertua – fifth on the grid – was unable to get off to a good start due to a technical problem with his Saintéloc Audi. The young Belgian was hit head-on by Viny Beltramelli's Porsche, and both cars ended up in the wall. Race control then brought out the red flag to clear the track and clear the cars. As for the drivers, after further examinations, they both escaped with more of a scare than any harm...

During the first lap, Stanislav Safronov (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO/Mirage Racing) had taken the lead from pole-sitter Éric Trémoulet (Mercedes-AMG GT4/Vic'Team). After the mandatory driver change, Aleksandr Vaintrub remained in control, but he was under threat from Gwenaël Delomier, who had taken over from Ethan Gialdini in the CMR Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo. The latter launched a winning attack to take the lead and seemed to be controlling the gap when his right-hand door flew off. The technical black flag put an end to the duo's ambitions for success... who nevertheless decided to request a new analysis by the panel of stewards. At the time of writing, the standings were still provisional.

As things stand, Aleksandr Vaintrub and Stanislav Safronov have been declared winners for the second time this year, which, if the standings are confirmed, would allow them to come back to within four points of the championship leaders. In second place, Olivier Jouffret and Éric Trémoulet more than limited the damage and confirmed their excellent consistency. In a close finish, Gaspard Simon and Pascal Huteau (Alpine A110 GT4 EVO/Code Racing Development) climbed onto the third step of the podium, finishing just one second behind the winners.

After a spin by Rodolphe Wallgren at the end of the race, the Chazel Technologie Course Alpine, which the 2024 champion shares with Nelson Panciatici, fell back to 6th place overall. It was all for the benefit of Davide and Paolo Meloni (BMW M4 GT4 EVO/W&D Racing), with the father and son taking fourth place ahead of brothers Rémi and Axel Van Straaten (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport/Mirage Racing).

It was written that this race would not be that of Nicolas Ciamin and Rudy Servol (Ginetta G56 GT4 EVO/CMR) nor that of Vincent Beltoise and Yves Lemaître (Alpine A110 GT4 EVO/Code Racing Development), two crews forced to retire following technical problems at the halfway point of the race.

The Am Cup also saw many twists and turns. As early as qualifying, championship leaders Stéphane Lémeret and Stéphane Auriacombe (Alpine A110 GT4 EVO/CMR) suffered a broken steering ball joint, forcing them to start from the back of the grid. Their pursuers in the general classification were unable to take advantage of this, with Florent Grizaud and Kevin Jimenez forced to retire when their GPA Racing Porsche stopped at the side of the track.

Having returned to the lead, Stéphane Lémeret and Stéphane Auriacombe were hoping to claim a fourth Am Cup victory, but Stéphane Auriacombe was trapped at Les Combes and ended his race in the gravel trap. Having put the two Stéphanes under pressure, David Levy and Jodie Sloss (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 EVO/Mirage Racing) were then rewarded for their perseverance with a first Am Cup victory ahead of class polesitter Philippe Thalamy (Audi R8 LMS GT4/Team Speedcar), who was driving solo, and the duo of Matthieu Casalonga and Benjamin Cauvas (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport/GPA Racing).

Spa-Francorchamps also marked the first appearance of a class for the Ginetta G56 GTA with three cars entered. Coming for their first time in the FFSA GT series, Amy Tomlinson (who is the Managing Director of Ginetta Cars) and Mike Simpson (former official driver and motorsport director for the English brand) took victory in a CMR team car. They beat the two Switch Racing cars with Clément Mateu-Romain Damiani and Alister Yoong-Peter Thompson behind the wheel.

This Sunday, the FFSA French GT Championship competitors will enter the second half of their season with the sixth race of the year, which will start at 4:10 p.m. It will, of course, be available to watch live on the GTWorld YouTube channel.