Ultimate Cup Series – Friday day shortened at Estoril

After a day on Thursday, devoted to private testing, the first races took place this Friday. An exit from the track late in the afternoon, during the second race of the GT Sprint, sounded the death knell for the day. The excessive damage to the safety rails, at the start of the pit straight, following the accident of the Ferrari 488 Challenge, could not be repaired in time. Before that, the first GT Sprint race, from car and 208 Racing Cups were able to take place without incident…

Single-seater: Laurens van Hoepen without the slightest dispute

Starting from pole position, the young 15-year-old Dutch driver won in style at the end of the first of three races. The Graff F3R driver managed the restart perfectly, after several laps behind the safety car, to win with almost 8 seconds ahead of his pursuers.

Le Graff also signed the double in F3R thanks to Théo Vaucher who defeated Nicolas Cheers (CMR), in the last part of the race. The latter nevertheless garners valuable points with a view to the championship…

GT Sprint: Gilles Colombani, the freelancer who casts a shadow

Marc Waechter took all four possible pole positions in qualifying. The pilot of the Renault RS 01 n°4 (G2 Racing AG), however, did not confirm in race 1, the victory of which went to Gilles Colombani, who returned for a second stint at the wheel of the Clairet Sport Renault.

The presence of the Corsican thus reshuffles the cards somewhat in this GT Class 3A category which until then was only marked by the duel between Marc Waechter and Bernard Delhez (AB Sport Auto). The latter also gave up a lot of ground in the last, to the point of finishing 4th overall, behind theAston Martin Vantage GT4 from PROsport Racing, entered in GT Class 5A.

The result of race 2 was not confirmed on Friday evening, given the red flag at the end of the race. We will therefore have to wait for the next few hours to find out, even if Bernard Delhez was in the lead at that time...

208 Racing Cup: Joran Leneutre and Viny Beltramelli, first winners at Estoril

See so many Peugeot 208 Racing competing in Portugal was not a foregone conclusion for the organizers of the Ultimate Cup Series. However, no less than 26 Peugeot 208 RCs lined up on the starting grid for the first two confrontations.

Author of pole position, Joran Leneutre, despite his junior status, held his opponents high by leading the race from start to finish. The JSB Compétition driver won his 4th overall victory of the season.

Race 2 and the reverse grid for the top 10 in the classification of race 1, benefited Viny Beltramelli who won on behalf of the Ropars Racing Team.

The third race, scheduled for Friday evening, was postponed to Saturday. Note that to allow this to be included in the program, the Relay 208 race has been reduced by one hour.

Florian Defet, in Estoril.