PROSport Aston Martin Pair Score Double Win At Paul Ricard

Race 1 Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse overcame a grid penalty to battle through the field and score their first GT4 European Series victory of the year in a thrilling opening race at Circuit Paul Ricard. From 11th on the grid, PROsport Aston Martin duo Ortmann and Sasse kept things clean to rise up […]

Race 1

Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse overcame a grid penalty to battle through the field and score their first GT4 European Series victory of the year in a thrilling opening race at Circuit Paul Ricard.

From 11th on the grid, PROsport Aston Martin duo Ortmann and Sasse kept things clean to rise up the order and eventually snatch victory in the closing stages. A safety car right before the pit window bunched the field ahead of the stops, making the second half of the race as tight as it was unpredictable, and Sasse eventually made the decisive move to snatch the lead, and victory, away from the #66 CMR Toyota of Antoine Potty and Romain Monti.

Jim Pla and Jean Luc Beaubelique claimed victory in the Pro-Am class for Akkodis ASP Team, while Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub took the Am category honours for NM Racing Team.

PROsport beats the drop

Ortmann and Sasse had their work cut out for them before the race weekend even began, knowing a five-place grid drop would be applied to their qualifying result as a penalty carried over from contact during the season opener in Imola.

Regardless, Ortmann did well to put the #24 Aston Martin sixth in the times to make sure the duo would start just outside of the top 10. Having aced both practice sessions on Friday, Akkodis ASP Team’s twin Mercedes-AMGs again led the way in qualifying, although this time Simon Gachet got the better of Jim Pla in the sister car to grab pole, with Pla lining up third having lost his best lap to a track limits infringement. Nico Verdonck split the pair by qualifying second in the #25 PROsport Aston.

When the race got underway, Gachet got a flying start to lead and quickly began to build a margin back to the pack, with Verdonck doing a fine job of holding off the charging Pla. By the time Pla finally did find a way past the Aston, Gachet was six seconds clear and firmly in control.

However, the race was turned on its head when a clash between the #53 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG and the #3 Team Speedcar Audi R8 LMS left both cars with suspension damage and required first a full course yellow and then a safety car to clean up.

With the safety car bunching the pack right before the pit window opened, it destroyed not only any advantage Gachet had, but also any margin the entire top three in the race held with the trio all being Pro-Am runners. Therefore, when the leading pack pitted as one with Gachet inches ahead of Pla, the order was shuffled hugely when the faster Silver drivers were put out against the Ams.

Debard did rejoin in the lead after taking over from Gachet, but was soon back into the pits to serve a one-second stop-go for a short pit stop, which handed Beaubelique a brief lead before the Silver Cup crews worked their way onto his tail.

First to pass was Romain Monti, who took the #66 CMR Toyota GR Supra over from Antoine Potty in fourth overall but was soon at the head of the pack as the Am drivers fell back. But the driver on the biggest charge was Sasse. Ortmann put in a great opening stint to bring the #24 Aston up to the top five before making his stop, and Sasse continued to push forward by working his way up to second to pressure the lead Toyota. The definitive move came when Monti tried to defend out of the chicane and lost momentum, allowing Sasse to draft past into Signes to claim a lead he’d never lose.

Monti held on to second, while Lluc Ibañez made a late move on Gus Bowers count to claim the final step of the podium for he and team-mate Enzo Joulié in the #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG. That car will start on pole for Sunday’s race, and will again be aiming high.

Silver Cup leaders Bowers and Konstantin Lachenauer were fourth, ahead of the second Racing Spirit of Léman Aston of Akhil Rabindra/Tom Canning. Beaubelique/Pla were the leading Pro-Am runners in sixth, with Loïc Villiger/Antoine Leclerc grabbing second in the class in the #36 Code Racing Alpine, while Kenny Herremans/Dante Rappange completed the class podium in the V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro. The joint Pro-Am championship leaders heading into the event had tough races, with Ivan Jacoma/Alex Fontana finishing fifth in the #718 Centri Porsche Ticino Cayman, and the #22 Allied Racing Porsche of Vincent Andronaco/Andrea Mayerl retiring with damage.

A tight fight for the Am class lead was ruined by a stop-go penalty for the #89 AGS Events Aston Martin, handing a clear win to NM Racing Team’s Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub. Safronov started on class pole but lost out to Wilfried Cazalbon in the AGS car early on. The pair were nose-to-tail for much of the first stint but the duel was finished when AGS had to serve a stop-go for shaving seven seconds off their minimum pit stop time. That left the #88 Mercedes-AMG well clear, but Cazalbon/Julien Lambert did enough to hold on to second in class. Benoit Lison/Cyril Saleilles completed the class podium in their Team Fullmotorsport Audi R8 LMS.

RACE 1 RESULT >>

Race 2

Hugo Sasse and Mike David Ortmann continued Aston Martin’s winning streak in this year’s GT4 European Series by fighting through the field to secure a second victory at Circuit Paul Ricard, and in doing so moved to second place in the Silver Cup championship.

Superb stints from both Sasse and Ortmann helped them eventually overhaul the #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG of Lluc Ibañez and Enzo Joulié, which had led the first half of the race from pole. Championship leaders Gus Bowers and Konstantin Lachenauer made it a double celebration for Aston Martin, bringing their Racing Spirit of Léman Vantage through to second, with Ibañez and Joulié claiming a second podium finish of the weekend in third.

V8 Racing’s Kenny Herremans and Dante Rappange ran out as clear winners in the Pro-Am class, while Julien Lambert and Wilfried Cazalbon claimed a dominant Am class victory in their #89 AGS Events Aston Martin Vantage.

Aston on a roll

After the #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin Vantage celebrated a double victory during the opening round at Imola, it was the turn of the #24 PROsport Racing version to do likewise at Circuit Paul Ricard as Hugo Sasse and Mike David Ortmann survived a tense final lap to complete the double in France.

Having won from 11th on the grid on Saturday, few discounted the #24 from adding another strong result with the car lining up fourth for the second race in the South of France. Sasse made his intentions clear right from the start by diving past Gus Bowers’ #10 Vantage when the lights went out to run third.

The star of second qualifying had been Spaniard Lluc Ibañez, who had secured pole position in the #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG and used a good start to fend off Pro-Am pole-sitter Kenny Herremans in the V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro, which had lined up second.

With no safety car interruption to the race, the Silver Cup crews were given the chance to dominate, and soon both Sasse and Bowers found a way past Herremans to make it a Silver Cup top three in the race.

Up front, Ibañez was struggling to pull clear of Sasse’s Aston Martin, and only held a slender lead by the time the pit window opened. When Sase stopped to hand over to Ortmann, Ibañez opted to stay out as long as possible, only stopping to relay Enzo Joulié right at the end of the window. When the order worked out after the stops, Joulié rejoined with a couple of seconds in hand over Ortmann, but the German was fully up to speed and quickly ate into the gap.

Ortmann caught Joulié with 15 minutes to go and lined up a great pass for the lead into Signes corner. Even though the PROsport car was now in the lead, the race wasn’t done as Konstantin Lachenauer (who had taken over from Bowers in the #10) also found a way past Joulié and latched on to the tail of the leader. That led to a breathless final five minutes as Ortmann and Lachenauer circulated as one, with rarely more than a car’s length between them. However, try as he might, Lachenauer couldn’t find a way through, with traffic playing its part in helping Ortmann to the flag just 0.2s ahead.

Joulié was third, capping a strong weekend for the NM Racing Team, which recovered superbly from a tough season opener to score two podium finishes this weekend. Also bouncing back from a tough start to the year were Team Speedcar duo Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani, who scored fourth place in their #3 Audi R8 LMS. Dante Rappange built on great work by Herremans to make the V8 Camaro a clear winner in the Pro-Am class, with the car’s closest class rival down in 10th.

While the Pro-Am win was comfortable, the fight for the remainder of the podium places was not, with some hard battling going on down the field. Eventually Jim Pla came through to score second in the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG he shares with Jean Luc Beaubelique, the result moving the pair to the top of the class standings. Vincent Andronaco/Andreas Mayerl grabbed third to salvage something from an otherwise difficult weekend after their retirement from race one. The final place on the podium should probably have gone to the Greystone GT McLaren 570S of Tim Whale/Adam Carroll, only for Carroll to slow with a technical issue on the final lap. Ivan Jacoma and Alex Fontana were fourth for Centri Porsche Ticino, giving them second in the points.

Julien Lambert and Wilfried Cazalbon soared to the top of the Am class championship with a dominant victory. Lambert worked his way into the lead past title rival Christophe Hamon early on, but had to hand the place back for track limits at the start. Regardless, Lambert made his way past a second time and the fight was settled when Hamon was forced to retire the #69 Audi he shares with Michael Blanchemain with a technical issue. Cazalbon brought the #89 AGS Events Aston to the flag in 14th overall, a huge nine places ahead of the second-placed Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG of Mauro and Benjamin Ricci. Race one winner Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub completed the podium in the #88 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG.

RACE 2 RESULT >>