Daniele Perfetti secured his, AKKA ASP and Mercedes-AMG’s maiden Blancpain GT Sports Club victories at Circuit Paul Ricard this morning thanks to a measured drive and late pass for the lead. Meanwhile, AF Corse’s reigning Iron Cup champion Martin Lanting claimed a first class victory of the season with fourth overall.
Perfetti, who only confirmed his participation on Friday in addition to his Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup exploits, kept his nose clean during the frenetic opening laps that featured drive-through penalties and a Full Course Yellow period before passing Daniel Vogt’s older Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
While the latter was faster on the straights the newer car proved better through the corners, and it was at Signes with five minutes remaining that Perfetti made his pass thanks to a classic switch-back manoeuvre.
The Swiss eventually took the chequered flag 6.3s clear of the HP Racing Mercedes, which had inherited the lead when early pace-setters Egidio Perfetti, Michal Broniszewski and Maurice Ricci were all handed drive-through penalties for excessively cutting the Mistral Straight’s chicane on lap one.
A subsequent Full Course Yellow period to retrieve Mario Cordoni’s stranded AF Corse Ferrari, which also removed Patrick Van Glabeke’s 488 GT3 from second place, resulted in Coach McKansy’s Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 moving up to third. The German hassled Vogt over the closing laps but ultimately had to settle for the final step on the podium.
Lanting avoided the travails of others to climb from ninth on the grid to finish fourth, securing the Iron Cup spoils in the process, ahead of Alexis de Bernardi who drove a similarly smart race aboard his Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 GT3. Nicolas Vandierendonck’s Salleslagh Racing Team Corvette C6 ZR1 GTE completed the top-six, one place clear of the recovering Egidio Perfetti who carved his way through from 13th after serving his drive-through.
Broniszewski made similarly light work of the opposition en route to eighth ahead of Jean-Michel Baert and Marc Sourd, who was second in the Iron Cup classification.
Stephen Earle completed the over-60s podium, while Ricci – who served his drive-through a lap earlier than both of his fellow offenders, could manage no better than 16th.
This afternoon’s 40-minute Main Race, which features the intriguing prospect of Egidio Perfetti and Broniszewski starting out of position but within range of the front, gets underway at 14:05.
Watch it live on www.blancpainsportsclub.com/gt/live.
Daniele Perfetti, #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3: “We were losing a lot of speed on the straights but fortunately there are plenty of twisty bits around Paul Ricard were I was able to make up time on Daniel [Vogt]. I saw him struggle through Signes a couple of times so I tried really hard to be in position to capitalise. Then I faked a move on the outside, forcing him deep while he defended on the inside. He ran wide and I was through. I’m expecting Egidio [Perfetti] to be very fast in race two but we will keep it clean. Hopefully I can build a big enough gap early on. Otherwise I’m easy bait!”
Martin Lanting, #48 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GTE: “Because of the big field I was more concerned with my place in the Iron Cup classification than the overall result. But apparently a few things happened in front of me, which was an extra bonus! Ok, I’m starting at the front for race two but, again, I’m only interested in the Iron Cup.”