+ Guilvert and Petit lead Lariche and Consani home in Silver
+ Still and Bölting make it four from five in Pro-Am
+ W&S takes full advantage of Am class chaos
+ Result: Race 1, Spa-Francorchamps
Grégory Guilvert and Paul Petit claimed their first victory of the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club season in a turbulent opening race at Spa where the duo led home a one-two finish for the Team Speedcar Audi team.
A long opening stint and late driver change laid the foundations for Petit to claim his maiden overall win, while Guilvert scored his first since Barcelona 2021. Championship leaders Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani turned around a tough qualifying to come home 2.7s behind and extend their points cushion.
Hendrik Still and Joachim Bölting took their fourth Pro-Am win in the opening five races for W&S Motorsport, while the German team also blew the Am class title race wide open with Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg winning after trouble hit the points-leading Chazel Technologie Course BMW.
SILVER: REDEMPTION FOR GUILVERT AND PETIT
Guilvert qualified the car fifth overall and survived a dramatic start to move up to third on the first tour. A multi-car clash further back eliminated the title-chasing Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang among others and summoned an early Safety Car.
Amid the chaos, Still had managed to drag past pole position man Josh Rattican to lead, with Guilvert shadowing the top two when racing resumed after the cleanup. A second caution period followed soon after when Hadrien David ploughed into the gravel with his damaged Toyota, meaning the second and third-placed cars in the Silver points were both out early.
That presented a big chance to score, and when racing resumed Guilvert made the call to run deep into the pit window to find clean air. The combination of his rapid in-lap and a swift switch to Petit helped the Audi vault into the lead, with Petit filtering back in with a few seconds’ advantage.
Another key pit call came from Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport, which opted to pit Berkay Besler from seventh at the first chance, and his team-mate Gabriele Piana put on a show afterwards with a stunning stint. Rejoining fourth, Piana pulled a superb pass on Consani at Les Combes, and then closed on Rattican’s team-mate McKenzy Cresswell. He tried around the outside of the chicane for second, but contact spun the McLaren and earned Piana a 10-second penalty. Even though the #12 BMW caught and passed Petit on the final lap, the penalty dropped Piana to fourth in the final result, leaving Petit to take the win ahead of Consani and the CMR Ginetta of Mike Simpson/Ethan Gialdini.
PRO-AM: STILL AND BÖLTING TO THE FOUR
W&S Motorsport pair Still and Bölting withstood heavy pressure to record their fourth win of the year, and extend their points cushion at the head of the class.
The early Safety Cars prevented Still from building a gap at the head of the field across the first half, but he did at least manage to put seven cars between himself and his closest class rival, Victor Bouveng in the Schuberth Motorsport BMW.
That gap was eroded over the second half when Bölting took over and lost time as the Silver leaders filtered past, with Bouveng’s team-mate Joachim Walde closing to within half-a-second of the lead Porsche. Despite the pressure, Bölting proved unshakable to score a big result. Emil Skärås and Hans Holmlund completed the podium in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden Supra.
AM: W&S DOUBLES UP AS CHAZEL SUFFERS
The biggest casualties of the start chaos came in the Am class, with damage for points leaders Antoni de Barn and Jean-Mathieu Leandri opening the door for Blickle and Kronberg to score big.
With both class pole-sitter Julien Ripert’s Team Speedcar Audi and de Barn’s Chazel Technologie Course BMW out with damage at La Source, Blickle picked his way through to lead, executed a clean stop and Kronberg did the rest, pulling comfortably clear of Bernd Schaible and Tobias Erdmann in the Seyffarth Motorsport Audi. Mats Olsson and Stefan Nilsson completed the podium in their Schubert BMW.
The second race for the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club at Spa is set for 12:10 tomorrow, shortly before the start of the world’s biggest GT race, the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.