Race 1
Schnitzelalm achieved success first with Joel Mesch taking a good victory in Saturday's sprint race.
Mesch had to work hard to reach the top places after placing third behind Tom Lebbon (Elite Motorsport – McLaren Artura) and Mikey Porter in Forsetti's car. Together with Mathieu Martins (Racar Motorsport – Aston Martin), this quartet gave the impression that they could fight to the finish line.
By the third lap of the magnificent Portuguese circuit, however, Mesch was already ahead and never lost it again. With the Mercedes disappearing on the ups and downs of the circuit, interest shifted to a struggling Lebbon doing his best to keep Martins and Porter behind.
But the young British driver couldn't count on his pursuers hitting each other for the duration of the race. Despite stubborn defense, he succumbed to Martins on the sixth lap and to Porter on the eighth. At that point, his suffering was compounded by a drive-through penalty for not maintaining his position in the peloton in the lineup for the rolling start.
The fight between the three leading cars ended there. The safety car remained in the pits for the entire duration of the race and Mesch's lead exceeded six seconds.
Martins closed to within a few tenths of the leader at the end of the 17th and final lap, but Mesch confirmed afterwards that he had managed the car rather than battle any problems.
Fourth overall was Charles Dawson (CV Performance), who overtook and then held his own against his Mercedes AMG colleague, Max Huber (NM Racing Team).
Victory in the “Cayman Cup” class went to Thomas Rackl of SR Motorsport.
Photo by: Gedlich Racing
Action on the track
Race 2
Jamie Day took delivery of Forsetti's car for Sunday morning's sprint race and took a comfortable victory in the Aston.
With a full day of dry testing, the teams and drivers seemed to have settled into their respective jobs.
The race took shape in the early stages, and then remained stable in the leading group. Leo Pichler (Razoon Porsche) took second position from the start and held it, while Marcel Marchewicz only took until the fourth lap to recover from a bad start and put the Saturday-winning Mercedes in third place.
Ivan Ekelchik (Wimmer Werk Motorsport – Porsche) finished fourth, but actually bothered Marchewicz little during the race.
Roberto Faria took fifth place with Racar's Aston, while Zac Meakin, now on the McLaren, was close to him at the finish line, but spent the race more worried about the threat of Emil Gjerdrum (Mercedes – CV), who on lap thirteen he had a good opportunity, but failed to materialize it.
The battle for eighth place overall between the two SR Motorsport Porsches in the “Cayman Cup” driven by Emil Förderer and Rackl, together with the BMW M4s of Gianni van de Craats (FK Performance) and Richard Wolf (Razoon) offered a good dose of action during the race.
Förderer prevailed over his teammate in a top-notch race until the checkered flag, ahead of van de Craats and Wolf.
Photo by: Gedlich Racing
The Porsche Cayman in action
Race 3
After Schnitzelalm and Forsetti split the two sprint races, the endurance race turned out to be a match between England and Germany. Two Germans shared the wheel of the Mercedes and faced the two English drivers with the Aston Martin.
While the Elite, Racar and Wimmer Werk cars (starting with Lebbon, Martins and Ekelchik respectively) joined in the early bickering, it was Day and Mesch who took the lead after taking over from Porter and Marchewicz respectively.
The gap was just over a second with a few laps to go, but we were never able to find out how the dispute would end because Mesch was penalized with a drive-through penalty for a pit stop that didn't last the mandatory minimum.
The penalty allowed Day to escape for a comfortable overall and Pro class victory, giving Pichler, coming back after Andreas Höfler's first gentlemanly stint, to take second place.
Pichler's task would perhaps have been more difficult if Martins' teammate, Roberto Faria, had not had a breakdown on the 21st lap of 30. The Elite McLaren could also have finished on the podium, but a radio malfunction meant that Lebbon returned after the pit stop window closed, resulting in the yellow car's second penalty of the weekend.
Mesch then took the Schnitzelalm car to third place, albeit at arm's length, behind Pro-Am winner Pichler, but ahead of the kings of the Am class, Nil Monserrat and Alberto de Martin, in their NM Racing Mercedes .
Franz Linden celebrated a class victory on his first race outing, after several years of learning the rules at track days organized by Winter Series operators, Gedlich Racing.
His co-driver Arne Hoffmeister overtook Rackl after a long battle in the second half of the race, only to break away from him to take the Cayman Cup honours.
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