The fifth round of the Ultimate Cup Series, held at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, yielded a fourth straight victory in the GT class for the 488 GT3 of Visiom Racing.
In command. Thierry Perrier, who started from pole position, lost the race lead during the second lap to the Renault R.S. 01 of Chardonnet but held on to second position. The first series of pit stops with driver changes was also when the teams paid the penalties imposed by the organisers according to the results of previous races. Jean-Paul Pagny, now at the wheel of a Ferrari, drove a sequence of very fast laps that brought him back on the tail of the race leader, Frank Thybaud. During the second hour, Pagny completed a decisive attack on the Renault driver, taking the lead and easily pulling away from his pursuer, who also had to hold off Carugati in the twin car. The Renault no. 45’s race ended soon after when a gearbox problem during the driver change prevented it from returning to the track.
Uncatchable. At this point, Jean-Bernard Bouvet, who in the meantime had taken the wheel from Pagny, had nothing left to do except manage the lead. Indeed, he stretched it to four laps over the Renault R.S. 01 driven by Thybaud and Chardonnet, thus clinching a fourth win out of five races so far.
Appointments. The next round of the Ultimate Cup Series takes place from 18 to 20 October at the Magny-Cours circuit.