• Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch power to narrow victory in Italy
• LP Racing’s Tamburini and Gorini finish second to keep Pro-Am hopes alive
• Akkodis ASP’s Beaubelique and Vannelet take Am class lead after Prette misfortune
A sterling performance from Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch in race two at Monza earned the #812 Team MZR crew their fifth win of the Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli season, as the #87 Akkodis ASP scored an important Am class victory.
Pole-sitter Kofler’s clean getaway in Sunday’s contest cemented first place for the Pro-Am-leading KTM X-BOW GT2. The Austrian then consolidated a three-second lead before handing over to team-mate Koch, who secured a narrow 2.6s victory in a pulsating 50-minute encounter.
A fantastic recovery by Saturday race one winners Carlo Tamburini and Leonardo Gorini to climb from 10th to second, ahead of team-mates Phillipe Chatelet and Pierre Kaffer in the #18 Audi R8 LMS GT2, ensures the title battle will go down to the wire at Barcelona.
The fight for the Am crown will also be settled in Spain after Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Gilles Vannelet picked up class honours to move 10 points clear, with the sister #53 Mercedes-AMG GT2 shared by Christophe Bourret and Pascal Gibon finishing second after Phillipe Prette (#2 LP Racing Maserati) picked up a last-lap puncture.
Title fights go down to season finale as Team MZR and Akkodis ASP are victorious
Taking the race start, Kofler ran clear of front row rival Kaffer to sweep into the lead on the approach to Turn 1. Settling into a rapid rhythm, Kofler began making his escape while behind them, Tamburini was busy storming through the pack to keep the pressure on.
Having started 10th due to mechanical troubles in Qualifying, the Italian made a superb getaway to put his Maserati fifth ahead of Benjamin Ricci’s #61 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG at the end of lap one.
Tamburini then swept around the outside of Am runner Alexandre Leroy’s #24 TFT Racing Maserati through Curva Grande for fourth overall, climbing a further two places in quick succession by passing LP Racing team-mates Prette and then Kaffer under braking for the opening chicane.
A rapid driver change allowed Kofler’s co-driver Koch – persevering through leg pain - to resume with a 5.4s lead up front. Gorini swapped with Tamburini and valiantly gave chase to more than halve the gap, but the pace of the lead KTM was enough to see the chequered flag first and clinch an important victory for Kofler and Koch in Italy.
Gorini and Tamburini finished second to leave Monza 43 points adrift heading to Barcelona, while Chatelet and Kaffer banked third to place three different manufacturers on the Pro-Am podium. Father and son pairing, Mauro and Benjamin Ricci, finished fourth in class directly ahead of the #80 Razoon - More Than Racing KTM of Thomas Andersen and Simon Birch.
A dramatic ending to the 27-lap race brought vastly different outcomes for those contesting the Am class. The Mercedes-AMG duo of Vannelet and Beaubelique fought through the pack from row six to clinch their fourth class victory of the year, after title rival Prette suffered a setback on the final lap while on course to win.
Although the Italian soldiered on to complete the last tour, he would have to be content with points for fourth place in class, as Gibon and Bourret powered past to make it an Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG one-two. Rounding out the Am category podium were Sehdi Sarmini and Klaus Angerhofer in the #16 True Racing KTM to confirm double silverware for the team in Monza.
Hubert Trunkenpolz and Laura Kraihamer rounded out the top 10 finishers overall for True Racing (#17 KTM).
The Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli title battles will be decided in the season finale at Barcelona, Spain, across the weekend of 11-13 October.