Autorlando Sport take Am Cup win in Sunday’s SRO GT4 European Series
After a drama-filled season opener on Saturday in the SRO GT4 European Series the Porsche Cayman teams struggled to repeat the same success in Sunday’s race. The best placed Porsche was the number 76 Autorlando Sport Porsche who won the race in the Am Cup Giuseppe Ghezzi and Alessandro Giovanelli crossing the line 11th overall. Allied Racing did lead the race for a brief while but a drive through penalty prevented the team from taking there first win.
It was the United Autosports drivers Bailey Voisin and Charlie Fagg who took the afternoon's final GT4 European Series race. The number 23 McLaren 570S GT4 started from pole position and rounded it off with its second victory of the weekend.
A number of Porsche teams where hit with bad luck after bad luck and after the safety car was deployed on the opening lap after several cars went off at the first chicane with several Porsche teams struggling to get back up to front runners leaving only the Allied Racing Porsche still in the mix.
More drama was to follow has contact between the number 20 Allied Racing Porsche and the number 126 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG resulted in a Full Course Yellow and a delay of the pit window. After the subsequent safety car intervention the field was released again and the pit window opened immediately with the number 22 Allied Racing hot on the tails of the leaders.
The United Autosports drivers decided to pull into the pits at the last moment. As a result, César Gazeau (number 27 AGS Aston Martin) managed to take the lead, with Nicolaj Møller-Madsen (number 22 Allied Racing Porsche) moving into second place. It was not long after the Dane then overtook Gazeau to take the lead, but was soon awarded a drive through penalty for causing an early collision dropping him way down the order.
In the remaining laps Potty tried hard to find a way past Voisin, but the Belgian driver couldn’t pass the McLaren and after 25 laps it was Voisin who scored United Autosports’ second win of the weekend. Potty clinched CMR's second podium finish, ending the race 0.447s behind the McLaren. The number 15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG, after an early retirement yesterday, finished third in the Silver Cup and sixth overall.
Victory in the Pro-Am Cup went to the number 42 Saintéloc Racing Audi of Fabian Michal and Gregory Guilvert. Michal and Guilvert took third place overall. The number 42 Audi came home five seconds clear of the second Pro-Am Cup finisher, the number 12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW. The Allied Racing Porsche crossed the line in 15th place despite having to take the drive through penalty.