Solid start to the GT4 European campaign for the four AMR Vantage entries from Paul Ricard

The #7 Mirage Racing Pro-Am entry of Stanislav Safronov and Alexandr Vanintrub were the best performing AMR car during Q1 starting from P9 on the grid with the sister #5 car of Ruben Del Sarte and Roberto Faria just behind in P11. The #39 RSLM car of Baudouin Detout and Clement Seyler was next best in P13 overall whilst the #74 RSLM car of Will Orton and David Kullmann suffered the effects of one mistake on track to drop them way down in P41 overall.

Under cloudy morning conditions, the 2025 got underway with the #7 car running well in P7 overall, second in class as the hectic pace of the opening laps finally calmed into a rhythm. Stanislav, however, would quickly be consumed by the chasing pack as he was forced to pit with power steering issues even before the start of the compulsory pit stop window had begun.

By the time that window had opened, it was the sister #5 car of Faria leading the remaining three Astons from P6 with Detout just within the top ten and Orton still within his recovery drive from his earlier Qualifying mistake.

With the second driver now taking charge, there was little progress for either the #5 or the #39 cars as they become embroiled amongst equally abled silver grade drivers but there was significant progress from Kullmann who elevated his #74 car up to P16 overall at the end. The #5 Mirage would eventually finish P8 overall with the #39 RSLM P9.

Sunday afternoons second race was much of the same but this time all four Aston’s gave themselves a chance with top ten qualifying slots.

Still the sun was struggling to make an appearance as low double digit ambient temperatures and a persistent Mistral wind make their marks upon the grid as some cars took to some extra ordinary racing lines around the first three to four corners of the opening lap before the first Full Course Yellow of the season brought the proceedings to a temporary halt due to a stranded car at the end of the lap.

Due to that Safety Car restart, that left just a twenty-minute dash for the drivers aboard before the pit window again came into play as Luxembourger Seyler lead the AMR powered field from his P7 position at the end of his stint. Coming out the other side of the pit window, none of the Aston Martins would figure within the top five in each of their two classes but only just with Detout in P6 within silver.

Racing out their final laps would see the #39 car finish top in P7 overall and with their sister #74 car just behind in P9. The P5 Mirage car would round off the top ten within silver whilst the #7 Pro-Am Mirage car finished P18 overall but P5 in class this time around.

A good start to the season with plenty of learning points to move along with as the series looks at its ahead to its next round from Zandvoort in a months’ time.

Photo credit – Team / Series