PORSCHE TAKES THE TOP GTE SPOILS AT SILVERSTONE
Porsche secured a 1-2 finish in GTE
Pro in the very first race outing for its brand new 911 RSR-19, with Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz leading home squadmates Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre after a late Ferrari challenge was foiled.
The polesitting #51 Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi recovered the time it lost with an early puncture during the second safety car period and, once the track dried, Pier Guidi went on the attack and overtook both Porsches.
Swift pitwork by Porsche restored the German marque’s one-two at the final stops with a little under an hour left to run and, just as Pier Guidi prepared to have a go at wresting back the advantage, the Ferrari was called into the pits to serve a drivethrough penalty.
Later it transpired that the penalty, initially given for overtaking under the safety car, had been rescinded – but only once Pier Guidi had entered the pits, and from there the Italian driver was powerless to bring home the #51 car higher than fourth.
That also promoted the best of the Aston Martin Vantage GTES of Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin to the final podium spot, Martin finishing just over two seconds behind Christensen.
Ferrari’s second car, shared by Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina, was the only one of the six cars in the depleted GTE Pro field to not finish, after Molina was involved in an incident with the #6 Ginetta of Oliver Jarvis at Becketts not long after the halfway mark.
Molina turned across Jarvis entering the first left-hander of the Maggotts-becketts complex, having not spotted the Ginetta coming, and the contact was enough to put the #71 Ferrari out on the spot. Molina, who replaces Sam
Bird in Ferrari’s full-season WEC line-up this season, described Jarvis’s move as “optimistic”.
Honours in GTE Am went to Francois Perrodo, back in the category after two seasons in
LMP2, Emmanuel Collard and
WEC rookie Nicklas Nielsen in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari.
They finished a lap ahead of factory Aston Martin trio Paul Dalla Lana, Ross Gunn and Darren Turner, who may well have taken victory if not for two drivethrough penalties and an additional stop for wet tyres, while the final place on the class podium went to the MR Racing Ferrari piloted by Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta and Kei Cozzolino.