Spanish duo Alan Sicart and Álvaro Barba gave Ombra Racing a double win (overall and GTS) in the Race 1 at the Hungaroring, in a gorgeous and warm afternoon. For the Italian team, this is the second class success and comes with a Ferrari F458 rebuilt after Jerez’ accident. Former GT Open champion Álvaro Barba was subbing for Stefano Costantini, who hasn’t yet fully recovered from the crash in Spain. The Ombra duo made a perfect race and took advantage of having no handicap, with Sicart keeping Giorgio Roda at bay in the second stint. The GTS leader came in second overall and in GTS on the AF Corse Ferrari shared with Paolo Ruberti. The V8 Racing Corvettes took the last spots on the podium, with Miguel Ramos-Nicky Pastorelli in the overall results and Dennis Retera-Daniel Keilwitz in GTS. Montermini-Schirò (Villorba Ferrari), today 5th, keep the points leadership, while Thomas Flohr (AF Corse) took maiden win in the Gentlemen Trophy.
At the start, poleman Mavalanov kicks off well but opens too much his line at first corner and Montermini dives to take the lead. Ruberti is third ahead of Barba, Tutumlu, Ramos, Griffin and Retera, while there is big battle and some rubbing further down between Plachutta, Hamilton (on the spare Corvette just arrived from the Netherlands after the V8 car was damaged in free practice) and Camathias.
After a few laps, Ruberti takes second from Mavlanov but the situation remains stable, with Montermini building up an advantage of 8 seconds. Zampieri is among the first ones to take over the wheel, after serving a 20-second handicap, against the 35 of Schirò.
After the pits stops is Sicart leading with 4” on Roda, 17” on Pastorelli, Zampieri, Soulet, then Cameron, Patel and Schirò. While Roda closes on Sicart, there is big battle between Ramos, Zampieri and Soulet for third, with the Belgian pushing hard and succeeding in lap 30 at the end of the straight after a slight contact. While Schirò passes Patel and Castellacci spins in lap 29, Soulet sees his bonnet getting half-opened but he continues for one lap before stopping. In lap 34, while Rugolo and Aicart duel for 13th, Castellacci dives on the inside trying to pass the two but can’t avoid contact and the three cars spin like in a ballet piece. The last thrill is for Sijthoff who misses a braking at the chicane and makes a jumping spin over the kerb hitting Cameron.