+ Result: Race 1, Misano
McKenzy Cresswell and Charlie Hart scored their first GT4 European Series victory of the season in a crazy opening race at Misano and which all of the top three runners retired.
Cresswell and Hart managed both the heat and a race full of incident to rise through the order, helped by multiple retirements around them, including both front-row starters – the #1 Team Speedcar Audi and #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG.
The result marked McLaren’s first win of the season, and the Elite Motorsport team also doubled its joy with Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead securing a breakthrough Pro-Am victory after a dominant drive. Max Kronberg and Daniel Blickle scored another Am class win for W&S Motorsport to overturn their Misano jinx.
The path opens for Elite
For much of the race, victory didn’t look like heading the way of the orange McLaren, but a series of disasters for the race leaders at mid-distance paved the way for Cresswell and Hart’s victory.
Benjamin Lariche had annexed pole ahead of Lluc Ibañez, but it was the Mercedes-AMG on the outside that got the jump at the start, running around the outside of the Audi to snatch the lead. From there, Ibañez set about building a gap back to Lariche, who was struggling with failing ABS. The gap stood at just over six seconds when the Spaniard dived in to hand to Alex Papadopulos, with the Mercedes-AMG still heading the #1 Audi once it rejoined with Robert Consani now giving chase.
However, Consani was soon back into the box with a severe vibration as the ABS finally let go, and just as he was giving his exit interview Papadopulos slowed from the lead on the pit straight with an engine problem.
All of that handed Elite the lead. Cresswell had run fourth over the first half, stopped early to hand to Hart and the clean air helped the car jump into the lead once the top two had expired. From there Hart wasn’t troubled, running clear to win comfortably.
The fight for the remaining podium places was far from settled. Yani Stevenheydens had held third early on but lost out to the sister car in the stops, Harri Reynolds emerged from the pit cycle behind Hart to briefly create an Elite one-two, but he had the #8 Team Speedcar Audi of Paul Petit right behind.
Petit passed Reynolds to grab second for himself and Gregory Guilvert, leaving Reynolds in a tight four-car battle with Michiel Haverans’ TeamFloral Mustang, Pedro Garcia’s Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin and Lachlan Evennett in the #4 Speedy Motorsport Toyota.
Haverans worked his way into third and looked set for a third podium in as many events alongside Sam Paley before being forced to park the Mustang with a suspension problem as the final member of the top three dropped out.
Evennett then pulled a superb pass on both the Aston and McLaren as they fought ahead to settle the final podium place in style ahead of Garcia and Reynolds. Hudson Schwartz and Lucas Cartelle completed the top six in the CRT-Sport Toyota.
Elite’s points haul was well timed with the championship leaders all hitting trouble. Enrico Förderer and Cedric Fuchs were just 12th in their SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG after serving a drive-through for contact, while Thomas Rackl and Gabriele Piana were an early retirement after their Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW was caught in an early accident.
Robertson and Ramyead double Elite’s joy
Robertson and Ramyead made no mistake on their way to doubling Elite’s haul of silverware, with both drivers controlling their respective stints to win.
Robertson held fifth overall across the first half before opting to pit for Ramyead in a quiet pitlane, with a smooth stop from the Elite crew putting Ramyead out under minimal pressure. He ran to seventh overall, a few places clear of the points-leading Schubert Motorsport BMW of Joakim Walde and Victor Bouveng, which maintained its podium streak in second.
Walde did endure a worrying moment when he bashed doors with Daniel Nilsson’s Nova Racing Porsche, which put the Cayman out, but the BMW continued to second, holding off Paolo and Davide Meloni’s W&D Racing Team M4.
Christoffer and Mikael Brunnhagen had claimed Am class pole for GR Sweden but lost out to Kronberg and Blickle across what became a tight race-long duel. The win for the W&S Porsche was Blickle and Kronberg’s first at Misano after a string of bad luck here in past attempts.
Race 2 is set for 11:50 on Sunday.
