Leutwiler and Andlauer take Le Mans Cup Le Castellet 120 GT3 Victory
In heavy rain the GT3 class at the Le Castellet 120, Round 3 of the 2020 Michelin Le Mans Cup, was won convincingly by the number 2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche 911 GT3R of Niki Leutwiler and Julien Andlauer, the Swiss team finishing well ahead of the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Michael Broniszewski and David Perel.
The race started with the number 8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi, which had qualified on pole position this morning, at the back of the grid after failing scrutineering. The number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski was at the head of the GT3 field, with the number 2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche of Niki Leutwiler in second.
By the end of the opening lap, Leutwiler had dropped to the back of the field after running wide at Signes and Mastronardi had fought his way up to challenge Broniszewski for the lead.Mastronardi made his move on lap 2 to take the lead at T4.However, the Kessel Ferrari tucked in behind the Iron Lynx 488 and for the next few laps the two cars were locked in battle.
Meanwhile, Leutwiler had recovered from his lap 1 off track excursion and was recovering back up the field. By lap 10 the Porsche was right up behind Broniszewski’s Ferrari, which allowed Mastronardi to open up a small gap as the Polish driver defended his second place. The following lap Leutwiler moved up to second place and set off after the lead Ferrari just as the rain started to fall. In the slippery condition the number 2 Porsche had the upper hand and moved into the lead after 36 minutes of racing.
A Full Course Yellow period was declared after 50-minutes of racing to recover debris from around the track and some of the GT3 competitors came in for their stops while others elected to stay out. After Niki Leutwiler handed the number 2 Porsche over to Julien Andlauer, the French driver found himself with a 40 second lead over the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari driven by David Perel and the number 8 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, who were once again locked in battle for the minor podium positions.
At the chequered flag the no2 Pzoberer Zürichsee by TFT Porsche 911 GT3R finished nearly 65 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, with the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 finishing just 1.7 seconds ahead of the number 8 Iron Lynx 488.
The next round of the 2020 Michelin Le Mans Cup is the two races at the Road To Le Mans in three weeks.