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GT Open: Edil Cris Racing Team wins thriller at Spa

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

Alvaro Barba was the first driver to cross the finish line in today’s International GT Open race at Spa-Francorchamps. After a very exciting race the AF Corse driver beat all his rivals to the line…but only after a controversial last corner move. After the race Barba was penalized and that resulted in Enrico Toccacelo Edil Cris Racing Team taking the win.

Tim Mullen was lined up perfectly for the rolling start of the GT Open race but Pierre Kaffer was first going into La Source. After a very close first lap Kaffer was able to get away from Tim Mullen. Shortly after Julien Rodrigues was given a drive-through penalty by the stewards of the meeting. The first three drivers where within 1,5 seconds and Mullen and Patrick Pilet where closing the gap on Pierre Kaffer.

In the GTS class the battle for podium was fought by Jean Philippe Dayraut with Marco Frezza and Cristopher Bruck behind him respectively in second and third place with no more than half a second between the last two drivers. In SuperGT the battle for third place was on between Patrick Pilet, Matt Griffin and Raffaele Giammaria with Pilet defending against Griffin.

After 17 minutes the safety car came out when Luca Moro spun into the gravel and beached his car. Directly after the green flag the stewards showed a yellow flag at turn one because Klaas Hummel was limping with a technical problem and was hit by Mark Bullit at the restart entering La Source. The yellow flag was shown several laps because of the debris on track left by Mark Bullit´s Porsche GT3.
Because of the safetycar period the whole field got together again and the race was effectively restarted.
Pierre Kaffer had a good start once again and was in the lead with no more than .8 second after 3 laps over Tim Mullen ans Matt Griffin in 3rd place. In GTS Class Jean Philippe Dayraut had a gap of more than one second over Marco Frezza and Christopher Bruck following closely.

When the time window for driver-change was opened Alessandro Galofano was the first to come in handing the car over to Rui Aguas. Meanwhile the top three in both classes kept driving with Matt Griffin closed-in on Tim Mullen. Shortly after the Aston Martin of Antonio Coimbra spun at the Bus Stop causing a yellow flag. Right after that Patrick Pilet spun his Porsche GT3 RSR at La Source.

With 35 minutes to go the stewards gave a warning for oil on the start-finish straight.

Meanwhile Pierre Kaffer handed over the wheel of the Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia over to Alvaro Barba while Matt Griffin and Tim Mullen kept driving. When they both entered the pits it was Mullen´s teammate Chris Niarchos who came out of the pits first. At the end of the pit-window it was Enrico Toccacelo in front of Niarchos and Griffin´s teammate Jack Gerber. Right after Gerber it was Pedro Couceiro leading the GTS Class in front of Alvaro Barba and and Richard Lietz.

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

Richard Lietz was chasing Alvaro Barba down while Barba was battling Couceiro in front of him. The three cars where together for laps within a half a second of each other. Barba finally pulled out of Couceiro´s slipstream before Les Combes with Richard Lietz slipstreaming him. Both drivers instanlty pulled a lead on Couceiro´s GTS car. Once in free space Barba managed to keep Lietz at a hold.

In front the battle was over with Enrico Toccacelo on first place with a comfortable 5 seconds over Chris Niarchos who had a lead of 9.5 seconds over Alvaro Barba who had Richard Lietz behind him. As his tyres warmed up over the length of the race Lietz had to let Alvaro go. Behind that Couceiro had a battle for 5th place Michael Broniszewski in a SuperGT car behind him.

In front Toccacelo was driving his laps in relative peace with no cars directly behind or in front of him 4,5 seconds behind him Barba had closed in on Niarchos and the both started battling for second place. With 5 minutes to go Lietz received a warning for cutting the track while trying to follow Barba.

After a small driving error by Niarchos, Barba took his chance and drove away. Behind them Broniszewski spun on the exit of turn one trying to keep up with Couceiro. Shortly after Lietz closed in on Niarchos and was trying to overtake for 3rd place in SuperGT class. In the last lap Lietz as pushing to overtake while Barba closed the gap with Toccacelo and tried to out-brake him entering the bus-stop chicane. Alvaro, clearly inspired by the win of his younger brother in European F3 Open cut the track and came over the finish line in first position. Shortly behind Lietz pulled the same maneuver on Niarchos and took 3rd place.

During the in-lap both Alvaro Barba and his team manager where summoned to Race-control. On the podium Kaffer and Barba were on the number 1 spot, with Giammaria and Toccacelo in second.

UPDATE:
After the podium ceremonies had come to an end and all the on-track action was long over the stewards decided to give Barba a five second time penalty for taking advantage by cutting the final chicane. As a result Enrico Toccacelo moved back into the position he had lost on the final corner and took the first win for the team since 2006.

Result Race 1;

Super GT
– 1 Raffaele Giammaria & Enrico Toccacelo – Ferrari F430 GT2 / Edil Cris Racing Team
– 2 Pierre Kaffer & Alvaro Barba – Ferrari F430 GT2 / AF Corse
– 3 Gianluca Roda & Richard Lietz – Porsche GT3 RSR / Autorlando Sport

GTS
- 1 Marco Frezza & Pedro Couceiro – Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia / Kessel Racing
- 2 Frédéric Makowiecki & Jean Philippe Dayraut – Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia / Jean Philippe Dayraut.
– 3 Lorenzo Bontempelli & Stefano Livio – Ferrari F430 GT3 Scuderia / Kessel Racing