While Jay Mo Härtling and Kenneth Heyer had much to celebrate, the biggest smile belonged to another Mercedes driver, Martin Kaczmarski. The Pole took the biggest victory of his motorsport career in the Sunday morning sprint.
Race 1
With Härtling taking pole by a huge margin of over three seconds, it was no surprise to see him win in Saturday's sprint.
But despite being pulverized by the SR Motorsport Mercedes, most opponents were happy at the end of the race. Runner-up Kaczmarski was thrilled with his first taste of GT3, while Ibrahim Badawi had reason to smile after pulling off a stunning defensive display to keep Adrian Lewandowski's other Lamborghini ST at bay.
Kaczmarski, whose background includes a Dakar Rally, rallycross and low-level Porsche racing, briefly took the lead at the start. Härtling didn't have time to attack him before the safety car lights started flashing due to Alfredo Hernandez going off the road at Turn 2.
On the restart, however, he wasted no time and overtook his AMG brand mate at Turn 1. He then began lapping around 2.5 seconds a lap faster than Kaczmarski, who from then on experienced a lonely but entertaining race.
“Every season I feel like I'm doing something new – said Kaczmarski – This is my first race with Mercedes and I love this car. But the guy in front of me showed me how to use it. So I have to work a lot. I can't expect a better result when it's the first time in my life that I drive this car… but, you know, I'm ambitious!”
The battle for third place was the highlight of the race. Lewandowski briefly led after the restart, but gave the position back with a mistake on the lap. And no matter how hard he tried, the GT3 Poland driver was no longer able to overtake his DL Racing rival.
Much of this triumph in the Cup class was due to some intelligent tactics from the clearly slower Badawi, who avoided mistakes, widened his lines and intelligently chose to put his pursuer into difficulty.
“From the middle of the race onwards, I felt that the tire was degrading – declared the Egyptian – The car skidded a lot in the middle of the corners and on the exits. I concentrated on defence, because I didn't intend to make money”.
Badawi admitted that not all of his mid-corner slow moments were due to his handling issues.
“I have to admit that sometimes I did it on purpose: at turn 5, at the last corner and also at turn 2. Because I knew he would have a great exit!”.
The system worked very well, with Lewandowski only managing to come alongside once, only to then spin out.
Hubert Darmetko (PTT Racing) overtook Leandro Martins (Racar Motorsport) at the very last minute in the battle for fifth place and the Porsche Cup. The best in class for the Ferraris was John Dhillon (AF Corse).
Race 2
The ambitious Kaczmarski didn't have to wait long before beating the SR Motorsport Mercedes. With Härtling out for Sunday's wet race, this was the Pole's chance and he seized it.
Andrzej Lewandowski could have challenged him: the two cars ran side by side from the start and seemed to have similar speed. But, as is now customary for GT3 Poland, Lewandowski found a way to ruin everything.
On this occasion, it was Lewandowski Senior's mistake at the start; at the green flag he was clearly out of line and inevitably had to serve a drive-through penalty. This meant that Kaczmarski only had to keep the car on the track to take the biggest win of his racing career, and he made no mistake in this regard.
Lewandowski still achieved a comfortable second place, such was the pace advantage of the top two finishers. But Darmetko still drove impressively to complete the overall podium, working hard to find a gap and pass first Martins and then Kenneth Heyer, the man now behind the wheel of Saturday's winning car.
In the end Martins followed Darmetko and took fourth place, while Heyer placed fifth. Badawi struggled compared to the dry conditions of the first race and only finished ninth. The class winners were Andrzej Lewandowski, Darmetko and Dhillon.
Race 3
The endurance race took place in similar conditions to the morning sprint, but the shared cockpits always change the dynamic. Mateusz Lisowski, who never participates in sprint races, was the protagonist with his Porsche Cup.
The PTT Racing Pole moved from the second row to the lead at Turn 3, while the front row men, Heyer and Kaczmarski, moved in behind him.
The safety car made its first appearance when Dhillon's Ferrari suffered a breakdown and stopped smoking profusely. The race restarted on lap six, with Kaczmarski overtaking his colleague Lisowski one lap later. Heyer followed in the ninth. The situation remained like this until the pit stops opened, with Adrian Lewandowski in fourth position.
After the leaders completed their stops, Kaczmarski once again had to face arch-enemy Härtling. Although the Pole had improved in terms of lap time compared to the German, it was not enough to prevent him from passing in a couple of laps.
Kaczmarski then settled into a respectable second place, finishing less than five seconds behind Härtling. Lisowski was punished with a drive-through penalty for making too short a pit stop, but with enough of a lead to stay ahead of Andrzej Lewandowski. The latter spun, causing a second safety car just before the finish line.
With the top three already arranged in an order corresponding to their speed, the restart and race to the checkered flag was uneventful as far as the leaders were concerned.
Lisowski won the Cup Porsche class ahead of the car shared by Martins and Dieter Svepes. Hernandez (BDR Competition) finished best among the Lambos, while Petros Makris and Marco Bonanomi (Kessel Racing) took the victory among the Ferrari Cups.
Badawi was never in contention in this race, after starting from the pits and receiving a penalty for a pit stop infringement.
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