Portuguese Pair Reach Long-Sought Victory After Perfect Race In Magny-Cours At The Wheel Of Their Autorlando PorscheChampionship More Open Than EverUnexpected Win Of JMB Racing And Mallegol-Bachelier In GTS
At last! Pedro Couceiro and Manuel Gião took their long-awaited, highly-deservedmaiden victory in the International GT Open in Magny-Cours. The Portugueseduo, which clinched no less than eleven podium positions since 2008, wereunbeatable, at the wheel of their Autorlando Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, beating localheroes Narac-Pilet (Porsche IMSA) and Cioci-Perazzini (Megadrive Ferrari).
With the top championship contenders finishing only 5th (Fässler-Camathias) and 6th(Lietz-Roda), the situation in the standings is closer than ever. Lietz-Roda (AutorlandoPorsche) still lead, but with only 2 points on Fässler-Camathias (Trottet Ferrari), whileNarac-Pilet (IMSA Porsche) are third at 136, Couceiro-Gião (Autorlando Porsche) fifth(122) and Rugolo-Ricci (Advanced Ferrari) fifth with 99.
The GTS race finished with a French victory, as Yannick Mallegol and Jean-MarcBachelier imposed their JMB Ferrari in an exciting finale that saw the Astons and theKessel Ferraris suffering from trouble and incidents.
At the start, Pilet took the lead from the pole, preceding Rugolo, Gião, Camathias,Belloc, Cioci, Griffin and Roda, with gaps remaining contained in the first laps. Firstbig change came in lap 9, when Rugolo went slightly ioff into the gravel, slipping downinto 9th position, while the two Villois Astons of Guerrero and Wiser were leading inGTS, ahead of the Kessel Ferraris of Bontempelli and Broniszewski. The FR Viper andCorvette didn’t take the start, following their respective mechanical failuresyesterday.After the driver change, it’s the Autorlando Porsche of Pedro Couceiro leading, aheadof the Megadrive Ferrari of Cioci and the IMSA Porsches of Narac and Belloc, all in 7seconds, followed by Rugolo, Bamford, Fässler and Lietz.
In GTS, the fight for the victory was superb, with Bontempelli passing the Astons andin excellent position to give the second Kessel car its first victory of the season, buttwo laps from the end the Italian was forced to pit for a tire change, which seem toleave the way clear to the Aston of Petrini-Guerrero to repeat the success of yesterday(Wiser-Lancieri had already retired with a transmission problem) but a spin in finalcorners gave the success to the excellent JMB Ferrari of Mallegol-Bachelier.
