+ Consani and Lariche put themselves on the brink of the title with fourth win
+ Vaintrub and Safronov double up for Mirage Racing in Pro-Am
+ Chazel makes it five for De Barn and Leandri to stretch Am lead
+ Result: Race 2, Misano
Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche secured a lights-to-flag win to complete a dream weekend at Misano, their fourth victory of the season putting them on the brink of securing this year’s GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club Silver title.
The pair’s clean sweep in Italy hands them a 79-point lead, meaning they can wrap up the crown next time out at the Nürburgring. Pedro Ebrahim and Yagiz Gedik chased the Audi home in second, but a late puncture for the M4 of Gabriele Piana/Berkay Besler denied Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport a double podium and allowed NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG drivers Lluc Ibañez and Alex Papadopulos into third.
Mirage Racing also doubled its joy with Aleksandr Vaintrub and Stanislav Safronov coming out on top of a tight Pro-Am race. The theme continued in Am too, with Jean-Mathieu Leandri and Antoni de Barn claiming a pair of wins for Chazel Technologie Course.
SILVER: LARICHE AND CONSANI CLOSE IN
Having not won at Misano in any of their previous seasons as a pairing, Consani and Lariche completed a dream double this time around, with the #3 Audi proving unshakable despite some late technical drama.
Consani started on pole and tightened his grip on top spot by edging ahead of the sister Team Speedcar Audi of Paul Petit into Turn 1, and then making a run for it when Petit was squeezed off line, allowing a trio of BMWs from L’Espace Bienvenue and Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport to form behind the lead Audi. The L’Espace Bienvenue challenge was abruptly ended by a tyre issue that sent Benjamin Lessennes back to the pits.
Consani kept the twin Borusan BMWs at bay, but lost his early gap to a safety car period called to clear up a collision between Ajith Kumar’s AV Racing Porsche and the Schubert Motorsport M4 of Mats Olsson.
Consani got the jump on the BMWs at the restart, pitting for Lariche with almost a two-second gap back to Gabriele Piana’s #12 M4. A clean swap got Lariche back out ahead, with the Borusan cars switching places thanks to Yagiz Gedik’s earlier stop to hand to Pedro Ebrahim. That helped the Brazilian jump past Besler, who had relayed Piana, for second.
Late in the race, Lariche began to lose some of the Audi’s electrical systems, suffering with a lack of ABS and traction control, but held Ebrahim at arm’s length to put himself and Consani in firm control of the title chase.
Besler and Piana looked set to keep the NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG behind, despite Ibañez climbing all over the back of the #12 in the fight for third, but a front-right puncture struck late on, bringing heartbreak for the BMW. Paul Petit and Gregory Guilvert were fourth, ahead of the Lema Racing x Mapetrol Mercedes-AMG of Mark Kastelic and Elias Niskanen, which took a season-best result in fifth.
PRO-AM: MIRAGE CLOSER THAN IT APPEARS
A second win for Vaintrub and Safronov has dramatically closed up the Pro-Am title fight, with the Mirage Racing Aston Martin pair moving up to second in the table.
Early contact for the pole-sitting CMR Ginetta of Thibaut Mogica dislodged the car’s bonnet and initially allowed Mikhail Loboda’s Continental Racing BMW to drag past into the lead, followed by Vaintrub as the Ginetta faded with damage and, later, a puncture. An early pit stop for Mirage helped Safronov leapfrog ahead of Loboda’s team-mate Vasily Vladykin.
The lead pair were then joined by Victor Bouveng’s Schubert Motorsport M4 to make it a three-way battle in the late stages. Vladykin fell back to third after a clash with the #87 Matmut Évolution Toyota, leaving Bouveng and Joakim Walde to chase the Aston Martin across the finish line.
Another tough race stuck in traffic meant points leaders Joachim Bölting and Hendrik Still were limited to fourth, giving them a now reduced 27-point lead over Safronov/Vaintrub.
AM: CHAZEL BACK IN CONTROL
There was little doubt about the Am class result, with De Barn starting the #317 BMW on pole and pulling comfortably clear of his rivals across the opening half of the race. Leandri then kept things clean amid the chaos elsewhere to finish a superb 12th overall, a huge 10 places clear of their title rivals to secure a fifth victory of the year.
W&S Motorsport Porsche drivers Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg fought ahead of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden Supra shared by Mikael and Christoffer Brunnhagen to limit the points damage in second, but now trail the Chazel pair by 21 points with four races remaining this year.
The GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club is back in action at the world-famous Nürburgring in Germany across the weekend of August 29-31.