+ Result: Race 2, Spa-Francorchamps
Razoon – more than racing KTM drivers Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen survived a late charge from Antoine Potty’s Maserati to claim victory in the second race at Spa, which featured a thrilling final quarter.
Birch took advantage of a messy opening lap between the two Ginettas starting in front of him to emerge in the race lead, and was the ironically helped by a lengthy safety car period after a big crash for Niccolo Pirri at Raidillon. With the KTM having zero extra time in the pits and many of the cars around him carrying compensation time, the caution period effectively handed Andersen a healthy lead once the stops cycled through.
However, the Danish driver still had to withstand huge pressure from the flying Potty behind. The i4Race Maserati charged across the second half to work its way into second before eating into Andersen’s lead and only falling 0.3s shy of the outright win at the flag, but Potty still secured Silver honours.
Shota Abkhazava looked set to double up in Masters before a penalty for contact set him back, handing the glory to Lennart Marioneck and Viktor Mraz in the RTR Projects KTM.
Razoon holds on as Ginetta loses out
After a dominant double class victory on Saturday, CMR’s Ginettas again looked like they would be a force to be reckoned with in the finale, but the team’s hopes faded by the exit of Turn 1 after a brush between the sister G56 GT2s.
Mike Simpson started on pole with Mikkel Njor alongside, but the Dane attempted to run around the outside of Simpson leading to a pinch on corner exit. The slightest brush between the two damaged Simpson’s tyre and delayed Njor, who then had to hold another big moment at Raidillon after a second touch with Birch’s KTM, which had worked its way up to second before then inheriting the lead once Simpson was forced to pit to replace his Pirelli.
Racing was interrupted soon after when Pirri endured a nasty accident at Raidillon, thankfully emerging unscathed from the LP Racing Maserati, but the cleanup needed several laps behind the safety car.
That actually helped the Razoon crew, with Birch/Andersen not carrying any pit stop compensation time, whereas the cars chasing them – the #111 Mercedes-AMGs of Jay-Mo Härtling and David Thilenius plus Potty’s Maserati – would all have longer mandatory stops.
When racing resumed, Birch led from Härtling until the German finally found a way past into Les Combes just before the pit window opened. Härtling was only able to build a gap of a few seconds over Birch, so when the stops cycled through and compensation time was served, Andersen rejoined back in the lead almost six seconds clear of Thilenius.
The second half is where the race really came alive, with a frantic three-car battle between the recovering #3 CMR Ginetta now driven by Ethan Gialdini, Potty and Adrian Ferrer’s NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG. The three traded places constantly until Potty worked his way ahead with a brave move through Blanchimont that helped him ahead of both his rivals. Once released, he cleared Thilenius for second and began eating into Andersen’s lead.
What started as an eight-second gap was down to just two by the start of the final lap. Potty pushed as hard as he could but couldn’t quite get the traction out of the final chicane, trailing by just 0.3s at the flag, but the Belgian did at least secure his second class victory of the season on home turf.
Thilenius and Härtling took third ahead of Ferrer and Branden Oxley, with the sister NM car of Alberto de Martin and Nil Montserrat fifth. Marius Aigner and Reinhard Kofler completed the top six in their MZR KTM. Gialdini lost his chance when the #3 Ginetta dramatically slowed with a technical issue after a kerb strike at the chicane and was forced to pit.
After his star drive yesterday, Abkhazava was again on course for the Masters win after he defied the maximum pit stop compensation time to emerge ahead of a tight three-car battle with Philippe Prette’s Maserati and Viktor Mraz’s KTM across the late stages. However, a tangle with the Iron Dames Maserati at the chicane earned him a penalty that dropped the ART-Line Lamborghini to fifth in the final result, allowing Mraz to lead Prette with the CMR Huracan shared by Rodrigue Gillion and Alexis Berthet completing the podium.
The GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli is next in action at Misano in Italy over the weekend of July 18-19.
