The Aston Martin Vantage GT4 was on pace at Monza but that wasn't always enough for some in the GT4 European Series
Sunday, September 22, 2024
For the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud, their Am Class endeavours were always going to be a long shot going into this final round in Europe before moving onto the season finale from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Having finished fourth in class after Saturday’s opener, the French duo needed to at least win and have the championship leaders fail to score in order to take the class fight to the final round.
Despite the championship leading Alpine crew crashing out of race two just after their pit stop, the #72 crew duo were unable to climb any higher than second in class before eventually finishing third for something of a bitter-sweet return to the class podium with the championship ultimately lost.
Then within the Pro-Am Class, we had the #7 Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub lead the class into Monza and with a class win in Saturdays race – all was looking good. Unfortunately for these guys, a puncture early on into a lap forced the crew to limp around for most of the lap before ultimately finishing towards the rear of the remaining pack for a P9 finish in class.
That result allowed the #30 Porsche crew of Finn Zulauf and Max Kronberg to swap positions with the #7 Mirage crew within the Pro-Am Drivers Championship table to take a fifteen points lead with them to Jeddah.
Completing the podium run this weekend was the #82 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR crew of Jamie Day and recently declared FFSA GT4 Silver Champion Matteo Villagomez who completed a P3 double at Monza.
Sadly, too little too late for any championship aspirations but the fifteen points per race does lift them up to P7 within the drivers table with two races still to come.
We now have a long break whilst all the cars and equipment and maintained before being shipped out to Jeddah for the final two races over the weekend of the 29th and 30th of November for an event that practically nobody within the paddock will know anything about until they get there!
As a foot note - the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Alexandre Machado was involved in an almost obscured accident along the pit straight as the pack was released by the Safety Car for their final last lap dash to the flag. Whilst the Car was extensively damaged after impacting with the barriers/wall, the series has since reported that the driver has been medically checked over and is otherwise OK.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
