Enrico Förderer and Cedric Fuchs have achieved their second victory of the season in the European GT4 Championship in a competitive and chaotic first race at Monza. With multiple lead changes and incidents throughout the event, the 44 vehicles on the grid provided an exciting spectacle at the Temple of Speed, while Förderer and Fuchs managed to keep their cool and thus extend their lead in the championship.
After qualifying, expectations were high for Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani, who sought to maintain their good form. However, a gearbox issue left Consani out of the competition, paving the way for the drivers of SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm, who with great resilience achieved their second victory in three races, despite the pressure from the TeamFloral Mustang driven by Sam Paley and Mihiel Haverans.
Lotus PB Racing secured their first victory in the Pro-Am category of the season with a great performance from Massimiliano Schiavone and Maurizio Copetti, while Max Kronberg and Daniel Blickle made history with their first triumph in the Am category since the season finale in Barcelona.
Lariche started the race on pole but was quickly overtaken at the first corner by the powerful Academy Motorsport Mustang of Cameron McLeod. The Mustang made a blazing start, but Yani Stevenheydens took the provisional lead with his Elite McLaren, which could not maintain the top spot due to its lack of straight-line speed.
Lariche managed to regain pace and was about to inherit the lead when McLeod was penalized with a 10-second penalty for breaching the starting rules. However, the incident that occurred with the #4 Speedy Motorsport Supra that crashed into the barriers caused the race to stop and brought out the safety car.
Once the pace resumed, Förderer seized the opportunity to advance and placed himself in second position after an excellent strategy in the pits. Lariche was the first of the favorites to pit, and after those stops, Consani emerged in second place behind Fuchs.
The race was interrupted once more due to a collision involving the Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin of Clement Seyler, the CRT-Sport Supra of Lucas Cartelle, and the Audi of Paul Petit, creating another safety car period. After the restart, Consani managed to recover, but his gearbox problem led to his retirement, leaving all the responsibility to Fuchs, who maintained the lead until the finish.
Thus, Fuchs achieved a narrow victory with just 0.1 seconds ahead of Haverans and Paley, who had managed to climb positions from ninth place. Cartelle, despite the damage to his unit, finished in third place, followed by Petit, who also crossed the line with his affected Audi.
The victory in the Pro-Am category for Schiavone and Copetti was a highlight, with Schiavone achieving the fastest lap of the race. Copetti clinched the win in a tight duel against the BMW of Schubert Motorsport. With this victory, the W&S Porsche of Kronberg and Blickle established a wide gap over the competition and secured a very comfortable win in the Am category.
The second race of the weekend is scheduled for 13:50 on Sunday.
