RACE 1
Soufi and Van Berlo paid tribute to their team boss Franz Konrad, who was absent and hospitalized following an accident, after taking an emphatic victory in Saturday night's opening race.
Soufi took a big lead when the headlights illuminated the darkness, before passing the baton to his teammate. The longest stop under the handicap format for the different drivers handed the lead to Clément Moreno, who took over the ANS Motorsport Ligier from Julien Lemoine.
But once the mandatory pit stops were completed, Moreno had just a 5″ lead over Van Berlo, who quickly regained the lead to win with a 35″ lead at the end of the 50-minute race.
“Danny did a great job in qualifying and built up a huge lead that he handed to me,” Van Berlo said.
“It's always a great pleasure to drive on this circuit in the dark. Unfortunately Franz couldn't be here today due to an accident last week, so we wish him a speedy recovery. This victory is for him.”
“Even though he's in his hospital bed, Franz made himself heard to make changes to the set-up – revealed Soufi – It was a fun first stint and Glenn was great.”
The handicap system made the race much closer behind Konrad's Ligier. Daniel Keilwitz of Rinaldi Racing, who got behind the wheel after Steve Parrow, followed Kevin Rabin alone at the wheel of the CN Class Nova and took third place from him in an exciting last lap. The two also closed on Moreno, with Keilwitz's Ligier finishing just 3.3 seconds behind his rival.
Laurents Hörr (DKR Engineering) also worked hard to finish fifth, after taking over from Jon Brownson.
RACE 2
The Konrad pair's second victory at lunchtime on Sunday was much less straightforward, achieved only in the final minutes thanks to the combined effect of the handicap pit stop system and a Full Course Yellow.
At the start, Hörr got off to a strong start and took the lead at Turn 2 from Keilwitz, who started in pole position with Rinaldi's Ligier, but the DKR driver put everything to waste by running wide at the hairpin. A strong headwind on the back straight was a problem for all classes on the second day of racing at MotorLand Aragón.
Keilwitz, Hörr and Van Berlo – who this time started with the Konrad – raced in a train of three LMP3s to the pit stops; all returning together with 20 minutes to go, the Konrad car was forced to stop for 29″ longer than its rivals, while Soufi climbed into the cockpit.
Brownson took over the Duqueine-DKR and left the pit lane first after Rinaldi's Ligier made a slightly longer stop. But on lap 16, after the trio passed, Rinaldi's Parrow preceded Brownson by 3″, with Soufi 21″ from first position. At that point FCY was called in to remove Lemoine's Ligier ANS from the gravel of Turn 12.
The race had already been ruined for his teammate Moreno, who during the first lap was hit by the Class CN Nova driven by Rabin, damaging both cars. The collision earned the latter a drive-through penalty.
Under FCY, Parrow's lead widened, giving Soufi more work to do once the match restarted with 12 minutes left of the scheduled 50 minutes. He quickly caught up and passed Brownson for second place, then started chasing Parrow, who made his job easier by spinning at the hairpin. On the penultimate lap, Konrad's car moved into the Duqueine and Soufi took the lead before turn 12, with Parrow second ahead of Brownson.
“It was a fun race – declared Soufi – Glenn did brilliantly in the first stint, which was complicated due to the wind. He passed the car to me and the aim was to continue pushing without making any mistakes. It was a clean race and we succeeded.”
Soufi had a brief stall in the pits, but it didn't make much difference: “I was a bit worried about the FCY, but the stewards closed things down quickly and we were able to finish.”
“It was a difficult stint due to the wind,” confirmed Van Berlo. “Also, we couldn't use the qualifying tires due to a puncture, but Danny did a great job to overtake the others. It couldn't have been a better weekend. “.
Maxim Dirickx and Valentino Catalano (Gebhardt Motorsport) finished in fourth place ahead of ANS Motosport's Iko Segnet, who switched from a Ligier to a CN Class Nova before the race. Juan-Pablo Vega and Will Stowell (Mühlner Motorsport) finished last with their Duqueine.
#PTWS #Konrad #duo #takes #LMP3 #double #Aragon
