Lachenauer/Gazeau show the potential as Gomar and Herr earn the prizes in GT4 European Series

Sunday, May 30, 2021

Whilst it was the Silver Cup #27 AGS Events Racing crew of Cesar Gazeau and Konstantin Lachenauer who were the more consistent, it was their sister #89 Am class crew of Nicolas Gomar and Eric Herr who stole the headlines at the second round of the GT4 European Series from Paul Ricard today.

In a change to their normal timetable, Saturday saw all forty-two teams set both Qualifying times yesterday for a double race header today leaving little room for repairs in-between if needed.

An early start was in store for race 1 this morning with the #89 AGS Events car of Gomar taking the highest starting position of all six Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s in P3 with fellow Am class runner Marcus Lungstrass close behind in P6 in his #18 Racing One AMR.

With so many cars racing into the funnelling effect of the opening corners there were few incidences on the opening lap although Lungstrass did manage to get in front of Gomar by the end of the opening lap to take the class lead but neither could capitalise further as they were held up by a squabbling P3 and P4 cars.

Gazeau had quietly made his way up from his starting P13 position to change over to Lachenauer from P8 overall at the halfway mark as the pitting Am Class Aston’s handed over to their lesser experienced drivers. The #55 Mirage Racing Aston had already suffered from a post Qualifying penalty that would see both Ruben Del Sarte and co-driver Tom Canning struggle to clear the midfield of the pack all race.

For the #45 AGS Events car of Hugo Conde and Akhil Rabindra, their lack of fortunate during the opening meeting of the season at Monza sadly continued as (apparent) accident damage just after Rabindra took to the wheel in P23 overall saw their car grind to a steaming stop along the pit straight.

Herr and Henrik Lyngbye-Pedersen (now in the #18) were both still running at the front of the Am class – that was until two cars sandwiched the Dane going into a corner to present him with an unwarranted puncture from which they car would ultimately finish a lap down.

Herr meanwhile, would hang on to claim their best finish of the season so far, with the #27 AGS car coming home in P8 for some vital championship points with the #55 Mirage coming home P12.

For Sunday’s second race of the day, eyes were looking skyward as black clouds had come down from the mountains to hang ominously over the circuit.

This time, Lachenauer was the front running Aston in P13 with Canning ‘still’ close behind in P16. A new front to the #45 AGS car of Rabindra supported the front-end contact as the basis of their race 1 exit as the Indian would start from P23 whilst the three Am Class Astons would start towards the rear of the grid.

Another clean opening lap confirmed that the performance of the Aston was not quite where it could have been despite them circulating quicker than they did at this event last season.

An early spin for Herr would seemingly ruin his chances of any repeat podium and another great stint from Lachenauer kept him and his #27 towards the front of the pack albeit not quite quick enough to challenge for the podium. Canning would be one of the first cars to pit – handing the red Mirage car back over to Del Sarte so that that AMR Drivers Academy driver could get in more race time.

With all the stops complete, Gazeau would maintain his cars lead position for the marque whilst the #45 car of Conde would slowly slide down the order as the faster and more experienced drivers behind slowly came through.

With the threat of rain long gone, the race meeting finished under fine spring sunshine with the #89 AGS Am car surprising us all with a late charge to steal a P3 finish in class to go with their earlier class win. The #27 crew would finish a fine P5 in class with the #55 in P10.