Q1 Trackracing obtained at home in Spa-Francorchamps its first win of the season, as Lars Zaenen and Gonçalo Fernandes took a lively Race 1 this afternoon, confirming the trend that sees youth prevailing in the GT Cup Europe. It is the second win in the series for the Belgian and the first for the Portuguese, whose international career just started this year.
They beat the other Porsche of Dutch squad Burgers Motorsport by HWM driven by Laura van den Hengel and Paul Meijer, again second and Pro-Am winners after a great performance, just like in Race 1 at Portimão, and Estonia’s Alex Reimann, who made a great return to the series in the EST1 Racing Porsche.
Q1 Trackracing completed its great day with the win in Am of Nathan Brauns-Nicolas Vandierendonck, ahead of reigning champions Leandro Martins-Dieter Svepes (LMR) and Argentina’s Fran Viel Bugliotti (GDL), with both outfits repeating podium.
Honours in Pro-Am, behind van den Hengel-Meijers, were for the Spanish pair Fernando Navarrete-Manuel Cañizares, second in the Mertel Ferrari 488 Challenge, and the SP Racing Porsche of Stefano Zerbi-Eugenio Pisani.
THE RACE – Race 1 in Spa had a very similar script as Race 1 in Portimão, with Paul Meijer taking the pole and dominating the first stint. Still gaps were not huge, given also the intervention of the safety-car to remove the Ferrari of Leo Rijnbeek who hit the wall in lap 3. By then, Meijer was leading ahead of Svepes, Pintos in the SMC McLaren making its debut in the series, Babini , Papi, Reimann and Zaenen, who did not have a great start from row one.
The pit stops started in lap 8 and after all changes, Laura Van den Hengel was in the lead 8 seconds ahead of Martins, who would be passed later both by Fernandes and Reimann, and Scannicchio leading the pursuing group, while he #80 Mertel Ferrari spun at La Source. A contact between Saelens and de Mello cost a drive-through to the Belgian.
In the closing laps the charge of Fernades and Reimann on Van den Hengel increased, with the Portuguese taking the lead in lap 17, while Bugliotti took third in Am from local hero Gillion. Any further action got frozen as the race ended behind the safety car, which had to intervene to rescue the Porsche of Scannicchio.