The FDA Esports Team still leads the SRO Esports GT World Challenge Endurance Series thanks to a second place for David Tonizza, Giovanni De Salvo e Brendon Leigh in yesterday’s Le Castellet 6 Hours.
Qualifying. The Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 was third on the grid, just 6 thousandths slower than the BMW Motorsport G2 Esports of Nils Naujoks, Gregor Schill and Arthur Kammerer and just 3 tenths slower than the fastet time set by the VRS Coanda Simsport car of Josh Rogers, Paschalis Gkergkis and Tommy Østgaard.
Key moment. The order was established in the early stages, with the pole car keeping the lead, while the BMW #62, with Naujoks at the wheel was soon dealt with by David Tonizza in the 51 Ferrari who had great pace. The overtake came just five minutes into the race and for the first hour “Tonzilla” kept the pressure on leader Josh Rogers. After the first hour, Tonizza handed over to Giovanni De Salvo who struggled to match the pace of Gkergkus before Brendon Leigh got behind the wheel, 17 seconds down. The BOP favoured the VRS Coanda Simsport car and further helped Ostgaard to increase his lead to over 40 seconds.
Second part of the race. Leigh couldn’t match the leader’s pace but was quicker than the 62 car, so there were three races taking place: Rogers-Gkergkis-Østgaard led by almost 50 seconds from the FDA Esports Team Ferrari that had almost a lap in hand over the rest of the field. There were no more changes so the order at the line was the #18 car of VRS Coanda Simsport ahead of #51 of FDA Esports Team and the #62 of BMW Motorsports G2 Esports. Noteworthy was a seventh place finish for Pawlowski-Santoro-Lorio, who had been fighting for the podium with the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of the Jean Alesi Esports Academy. 20th were Kreuzer-Van der Velde-McAuley in the Ferrari of SideMax Motorworks and 24th were Blotto-Gyetvan-Dimov in the Kessel Racing by Racing Line car.
Championship. FDA Esports Team and VRS Coanda Simsport are tied on 43 points, with a first and second place each, but the Italian team leads, having been the first to win. On 27 points is the GPX Racing by Rennwelten team while fourth is the Ferrari of Jean Alesi Esports Academy on 16 points. The next round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Series takes place on 7 and 8 August running on the Spa-Francorchamps layout. The Sprint Series is back next Friday, still at Le Castellet.