Emil Frey Racing made their first Blancpain GT Series win look like a fantasy tale at the Circuit Paul Ricard, as Albert Costa carried on the work of Christian Klien and Marco Seefried in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, pushed hard and bravely took first place from the No. 7 M-SPORT Bentley in the final lap.
A mistake by Jake Dennis saw the driver lose the lead and a lot more at the start in his No. 76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, and this benefited the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren, which was leading a Blancpain GT race for the first time this season, with the No. 14 Emil Frey Lexus in close pursuit.
Though there were some nice maneuvers through the field, they were in second plan due to the questionable ones that mostly led to spins of some of the main contenders as they were simply fighting too hard for space and trying to overtake at impossible places.
The second hour saw the No. 58 keep its lead, though the pressure was building right behind with the No. 14 and the No. 1 WRT Audi coming closer and trading paint for second. Once the No. 14 got rid of the No. 1, it was time to attack the leader, which lasted for most of the period and didn’t succeed. Props should be also for M-SPORT Bentley as pit work did wonders for the No. 7 car as it jumped to fourth overall.
The third hour started with what WRT couldn’t expect, as the No. 1 Audi stopped and needed to stay on the garage for repairs. While that, on track the No. 7 M-SPORT Bentley managed to put pressure and overtake the No. 114 Emil Frey Lexus, jumping to third place and targeting the second placed No. 14 Emil Frey Lexus. Soon the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi, the No. 76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin and the No. 72 SMP Ferrari started a battle royale for fourth place, with the No. 114 holding it bravely.
The straight line speed of the No. 7 Bentley was enough to reach the No. 14 Lexus near the end of the third hour, though all the work that wasn’t done on track was compensated in the pit stops, so the No. 7 jumped to second. The No. 14 eventually lost ground to the No. 72 too, and the Ferrari was in hot pursuit of the No. 7 before a caution bunch them up. With full course yellows coming in sequence, the No. 72 took the brief green flag to sneak into second before the final hour.
In the final hour, the No. 72 SMP Ferrari was leading and the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren was second, with the No. 7 Bentley behind, and all of a sudden things turned out in favor of Bentley, as a puncture knocked out the No. 72 and a drive through penalty knocked the No. 58 too, but even though the No. 7 got the lead, it wasn’t exactly all good things for them with the No. 14 approaching quickly, and with a colossal effort from Albert Costa, the No. 14 passed the No. 7 in the halfway of the final lap, taking the win afterwards.
The No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini came out on top in the Silver Cup while the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari won the Pro-Am Cup, and the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren got the Am Cup win with another flawless race for them
Now the focus is the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa on July 28th and 29th, and a complete championship analysis will be brought here in the coming weeks.
PHOTO: SRO
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