Oschersleben – Race 1: Lucas Auer first winner of the year

Ben Green having been disqualified after setting the fastest time in Q1 due to an illegal weight issue, the driver of the Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf started from pole position this Saturday afternoon. While managing to create a comfortable gap throughout the race ahead of second-placed Jordan Pepper, the leader still had to fight back twice against his opponent.

In the pits, the South African, who ultimately finished the race in second place, almost stole the lead from polesitter Lucas Auer thanks to an optimized stop during the first part of the chase between the two men. In a close fight at the end of the race, the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 driver was just a few tenths behind his rival despite a notable acceleration in the final ten minutes, allowing him to close a gap of more than two seconds.

Just a few meters from the two leading drivers, the fight for the podium was also fierce. From the start, the Frenchman Jules Gounon, then fifth, managed to get the better of Thomas Preining. However, the Mercedes-AMG driver took the gamble of making his pit stop before his rivals at the front, while he was in third position. Overtaken by a whisker by his opponent of the day aboard his Porsche 911 GT3 R, Gounon also saw Marco Engel, the German driving one of the three other Mercedes-AMGs on the grid, overtake the two main leaders of this race during the pit stops.

This Sunday will mark the second half of the weekend for the 24 competing drivers. The second qualifying session will begin at 9:20 a.m. (French time), while the second race will start at 13:30 p.m.

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