Pasin Lathouras enjoyed a superb first-ever visit to Austria’s Red Bull Ring last weekend, the 21-year-old Thai driver claiming a hard fought win in Race 1 of the fourth round of International GT Open followed by another strong points scoring finish in Race 2. That all added up to put his championship challenge firmly back on track.

Pasin and his teammate Michele Rugolo came into the weekend off the back of a very difficult previous round at Silverstone a month previously that had seen the drivers of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3 slip to 11 points off the top of championship classification. So there would be no room for any errors at the Red Bull Ring, despite the Thai youngster having never visited the track before.

Come the Qualifying (Q1) session to decide the grid for Race 1, Michele dug deep and put the NaRaYa and Tourism Authority of Thailand-supported car onto pole position. The Italian started the 70-minute race and he worked hard to pull out a gap at the front. That was required, as the pair would be hit by an extra 10-second mid race time penalty, which was added due to their results in the previous races.

Michele continued to build a gap at the front over his rivals until he reached the mid race distance point where he handed over to Pasin. The Thai driver took over the car and with the extra 10-second stationary penalty served, emerged in P2. He then warmed up his tyres and set about closing down the gap to the race leading Lamborghini. This he did successfully and despite this being a track where overtaking is quite difficult, he made a superbly judged pass to move into the lead and open up a gap in front.

After 45 laps of tough racing at a blisteringly hot Red Bull Ring Pasin stroked the Ferrari past the checkered flag to take an excellent win and one that put him right back in the title fight. Job well done.

For Sunday’s Race 2 the #51 car would start from the second row of the grid after Pasin turned in an excellent fastest lap time in the Qualifying (Q2) session that beat off several top rank ‘Gold’ class drivers.

With an extra 25 seconds of ‘success’ penalty time to be added while stationary at the mid race pitstop Pasin and Michele’s main target would be to push hard all race and try to gain as many championship points as possible.

Pasin did a superb job to maintain the position of the #51 car during the opening stint and when he handed over to Michele the Italian driver continued the good work. After the extra penalty was served he posted a string of fastest laps to close right back up and onto the tail of the car in P3 by the end of the 60-minute race.

That victory in Race 1 combined with fourth place in Race 2 more than halves Pasin and Michele’s deficit in the championship standings. They are now on 107 points and, crucially, are just 5 points away from the classification leaders.

International GT Open now enters a two-month summer break before resuming at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps Circuit on 4-6 September for round 5 of 7.

Pasin Lathouras: “I’m very happy with the weekend, we needed to bounce back after the Silverstone results, we couldn’t afford to lose any more points and we really got the job done. They were both very hot, very tough races, this track is hard to gain a lot of time on and also very hard to pass. In the first race Michele did a superb drive, keeping the gap between him and Lamborghini quite well, which made it less work for me to catch up to him in the closing stages of the race. We have finally fixed the brake problems and the car was at last at point where we feel comfortable to drive, the first time since Paul Ricard really, so thank you to the team for doing that. In the second race I worked hard to maintain position and Michele did another very good drive to finish the job off. Now we have a break but we’re certainly back in the championship reckoning so I’m pleased with the weekend.”