FFSA GT-C1: Victory for the Palette-Hassid duo in Dijon

The return of the French Championship FFSAGT on the Dijon-Prenois route has clearly been well rained since the start of the weekend. In very delicate track conditions with increasing rain, Porsche et le Martinet by Alméras showed themselves the most in spirit this Saturday for the opening race of the third meeting of the FFSA GT 2017 GT4 version.

Gilles Vannelet (Porsche Cayman n°30 – CD Sport), leading the championship with his teammate Mike Parisy before Dijon, had taken pole position for this first confrontation, but quickly ceded control of the race to Henry Hassid (Porsche Cayman n°18 – Martinet by Alméras). A few meters further in the peloton, a contact sent Niki Leutwiler (Porsche Cayman n°2 – TFT Racing) into a spin with an ultimately happy outcome for the Swiss driver.

Hassid then leads the standings ahead of Vannelet, Robert Consani (Ginetta G55 n°8 – Team SpeedCar) and Nicolas Tardif (Ginetta G55 n°26 – CMR), while Stéphane Tribaudini (Ginetta G55 n°111 – CMR) climbs into fifth position and already dominates the Am ranking.

Gilles Vannelet finally takes control of the race after less than five minutes of racing against Henry Hassid. The latter will slip in the standings, leaving Consani and Tribaudini to climb onto the provisional podium before Consani is penalized with a drive-through for early departure. Hassid took the opportunity to move back into second place for a while, but Tribaudini was in great spirits in these conditions.

The race will be neutralized under Full Course Yellow then the safety car after a little over a quarter of an hour, notably after the off-road excursion of the No. 4 Porsche Cayman GT27 – IMSA Performance

After the driver changes, Tribaudini, who was driving alone in his Ginetta, took the lead, but finally saw Mike Parisy, Gilles Vannelet's teammate, take the advantage. We think the Palois is on his way to his first success of the year, but an error at the end of the pit straight a little less than 20′ from the finish will give Steven Palette the opportunity to replace the Porsche Cayman n°18 – Martinet by Alméras at the forefront and racing towards victory.

The Parisy-Vannelet duo finished 2nd ahead of the Ginetta of Consani-Lariche, authors of a great comeback. Grégory Guilvert and Manu Rodrigues failed to reach the podium with the No. 4 Porsche Cayman GT69 – Saintéloc Racing.

Stéphane Tribaudini finished in fifth place, and dominated the Am category. Note that the McLaren 570S GT4 n°3 – Energy by Art by Simon Gachet and Bruno Hernandez could claim a podium, before being penalized with a drive-through for overtaking under safety car regime.

The second race of the weekend will take place tomorrow from 14:35 p.m., with Grégory Guilvert in pole position.

Race 1 ranking