First success for Mirage Racing, title decision postponed to Sunday

Mirage Racing and the duo Vincent Beltoise and Benoît Lison left no chance for competition with theAlpine A110 GT4 n°919, during the first race of the final of the FFSAGT at Paul Ricard.

Laurent Hurgon (BMW M4 GT4 n°3 – BMW Team France) had retained the advantage at the start given during the night over Christopher Campbell (BMW M4 GT4 n°17 ​​– L'Espace Bienvenue), when Edouard Cauhaupé (Mercedes-AMG GT4 n°187 – CD Sport) gets the best of Benoît Lison (Alpine A110 GT4 n°919 – Mirage Racing).

Starting eighth after a five-place penalty for an incident at Magny-Cours, Stéphane Lémeret (Alpine A110 GT4 n°36 – CMR- then moved up to 5th position, two places ahead of its main rival for the title Fabien Michal (Audi R8 LMS GT4 n°42 – Saintéloc Racing).

The race was neutralized under Full Course Yellow then Safety Car after the #55 Ginetta G4 GT84 – CMR of Marc Sourd stopped at the trackside, damaged on the entire left side. An incident visibly caused by contact with the No. 8 Audi R4 LMS GT21 – Saintéloc Racing.

Fabien Michal then comes into contact with Fabien Barthez (Mercedes-AMG GT4 n°16 – AKKA-ASP) and spins in the last sector of the track. The No. 8 Audi R4 LMS GT48 – Orhes Racing of Olivier Pernault was the collateral victim of the incident, the two Audis colliding and having to retire.

CMR not varnished

After the burst of driver changes, theAlpine A110 n°919 – Mirage Racing of Vincent Beltoise emerges in the lead, with more than 2″ ahead of the Mercedes n°187 – CD Sport, now entrusted to Arthur Rougier and theAlpine A110 n°36 by Pierre-Alexandre Jean.

The latter overtakes Rougier 21′ from the finish and launches an attack on the leader Vincent Beltoise. But the latter remains out of reach, regularly widening the gap on the young CMR driver. The latter, however, seems to have carried out the right operation, since second place gave them first place in the championship tied with Grégory Guilvert and Fabien Michal.

But the recurring bad luck for the Gard team will strike again with a technical problem on the last lap, dropping the No. 36 to ninth position under the checkered flag.

In the lead, Vincent Beltoise won ahead of Ricardo van der Ende (BMW M4 n°17) and offered the first victory in FFSA GT to the debutant Mirage Racing team.

Arthur Rougier (Mercedes-AMG n°187), après une lutte âpre avec le Néerlandais, échoue sur la troisième marche du podium. Belle quatrième place d’Eric Trémoulet et Olivier Jouffret (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 n°64 – Vic’Team) et le duo Thomas Drouet – Benjamin Ricci (Mercedes-AMG GT4 n°88 – AKKA-ASP).

Sébastien Loeb and Laurène Godey (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 n°19 – Sébastien Loeb Racing) finished 16th.

AGS titled in Am Cup

In the Am Cup, Christophe Hamon and Gwenaël Delomier (Audi R8 LMS GT4 n°5 – Full Motorsport) won, but the title went to Nicolas Gomar and Julien Lambert (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 n°10 – AGS Events), second in the test.

In the fight for the title, Grégory Guilvert and Fabien Michal, thanks to the setbacks of theAlpine n°36, will present themselves tomorrow at the start of the final event with a 16-point lead over Stéphane Lémeret and Pierre-Alexandre Jean.