But the Vantage pair took a backseat in Sunday's Endurance race at the hands of Elite Motorsport's McLaren Artura. The battle between the two British teams capped a weekend of hotly contested racing on the narrow 4.005km Spanish track.
RACE 1
Mikey Porter and Joel Mesch put on a thrilling battle in front of a large crowd on a hot Saturday afternoon. Forsetti's Aston Martin and Schnitzelalm Racing's Mercedes AMG remained close for the entire 30' of the race, never more than a second apart. Porter gave it his all, giving Forsetti his fifth victory of the 2024 season with an advantage of 0.489 seconds.
“It's always nice to win a victory, the first on an individual level for the team – he declared enthusiastically – It's not easy to have someone on your tail for the whole half hour. Congratulations to him, he stood up to me and put immense pressure on me I was looking in the mirrors the whole time.”
“If I had done a few more laps, maybe I would have been closer, but he was very fast,” added Mesch with a big smile – I couldn't have done more in that half hour. The distance between us has always been the same. Hats off.”
Mesch pulled away from Tom Lebbon on the first lap, but the Elite Motorsport McLaren driver settled for a podium ahead of the second Aston-Forsetti driven by Matt George.
Behind the leading quartet, another epic battle for Pro/Am class honors took place, with British veteran Nigel Greensall taking victory and fifth place overall on his debut in the series. Greensall's Toyota Supra lost out early on to Markus Eichele's BMW M4, but then struggled to pass and defend against Linus Hahne's M4 and Charles Dawson's Mercedes.
A series of track limit warnings and penalties created further uncertainty, but Greensall – in a single appearance for the Barton Racing Team – used his wealth of experience to bring the Supra home, narrowly ahead of Hahne.
“It was fantastic! I kept getting attacked by BMWs, two of which hit me at the start and in the first corner. The situation calmed down a bit, but then I made a mistake halfway through the race which slowed me down for a couple of of curves,” he says.
“One of them ran into me, I think he lost the brake pedal. Then, however, it was a matter of driving at the maximum, with never-ending qualifying laps. I kept an eye on the limits of the track, I brought three was the maximum allowed and I thought that was fine. It's the first victory for the Barton Racing Supra.”
RACE 2
Jamie Day gave Forsetti a further victory on Sunday morning, but only after another exciting duel with the Schnitzelalm Mercedes, this time driven by Marcel Marchewicz. Day took advantage of Pole to hold the lead, then pulled away briefly only to allow Marchewicz to get back on him in a tight chase that lasted for the entire 30 minutes of the race.
On the final lap Marchewicz gave it his all to find a way past Day, with the green Mercedes coming alongside the Aston on more than one occasion. Day pushed his rival off the circuit, then made a small mistake at the final corner, but held on to take the win with a 0.154 lead.
“It was tough, the guys from Schnitzelalm put me under pressure until the end – said Day – We had to fight hard, he pushed on the inside and outside. But I remained composed and knew where to position the car at the moment perfect and we came out on top. I made a little mistake on the last corner, so it was a close race to the finish. The season finale and it's getting closer and closer. We've got two rounds after this one, so there will be more battles “.
At the start, Race 1 winner Porter – this time racing in the second Aston Forsetti #7 – was sent into a spin by Zac Meakin's McLaren-Elite, who went unpunished for the accident. Artura completed the podium as in Race 1, while a frustrated Porter recovered to move up to fifth place overall at the checkered flag.
The Pro/Am title was won this time by Philip Wiskirchen in the ME Motorsport BMW M4, but only after an entertaining battle with Emil Gjerdrum's Mercedes-CV Performance. Both were penalized five seconds for violating track limits, as often happens in Valencia.
Wiskirchen remained fourth overall despite adding five seconds to his race time, but Gjerdrum took 10″ and dropped three places at the checkered flag, behind Porter and the Porsche-SR Motorsport pair driven by Enrico Forderer and Tim Neuser.
Nil Montserrat won the AM Class with Mercedes-NM Racing, after an exceptional race against Onder Erdem's BMW and Tim Peeters' Mercedes.
RACE 3
Elite-McLaren made up for the losses in the Sprint races with victory in the Endurance race on Sunday afternoon. The key was a great start from Lebbon, who went wheel-to-wheel with Porter in the #19 Aston-Forsetti from the start; ran wide at turn 1, he returned to the track at the head of turn 2.
Porter followed Lebbon throughout the first stint before passing the baton to Day, while Lebbon passed the Artura to Meakin, who maintained the lead and won by 2.592 seconds.
“I knew we would struggle at the start, as we did all weekend – said Lebbon – But I managed to get a good start and I thought: 'I only have one chance, make the most of it'. I knew the pace was there was, so I created a gap and maintained it, then Zac held on at the end. This makes up for the Sprint races, winning what is the main event for us.”
Lebbon also revealed that he feared he would vomit during his stint: “We don't have air conditioning in the McLaren, which makes it very difficult, but I kept pushing.” Meakin was grateful to have inherited a clean cockpit.
Behind the first two, Matt George started in the #7 Aston-Forsetti and in the first laps he joined a frustrated Mesch in Schnitzelalm's Mercedes. Mesch hit the rear of the Aston “one or ten times”, according to George and the contact appeared to lead to worse. Just before the pit stop window opened, the green Mercedes suddenly went straight on the brakes and lost power due to a suspected alternator belt failure.
Porter dropped from the #19 and took George's place in the #7 following a pit stop by Forsetti, thus managing to finish both second and third after a heroic two-stroke effort. But during the break George took two penalties for violating track limits which put the Vantage off the podium.
The BMW M4 of ME Motorsport from Eichele and Wiskirchen therefore achieved third place overall and victory in Pro/Am.
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