DINAMIC Motorsport bags maiden triumph in Barcelona
• Calamia and Pampanini victorious in slippery Spanish opener
• Team MZR’s Koch and Kofler provisionally secure Pro-Am title glory
• Fight for Am Drivers’ crown goes to the wire in season finale
Mauro Calamia and Roberto Pampanini combined to score their first-ever Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli victory in a wet opening race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Team MZR did enough to mathematically seal the Pro-Am title.
The #67 DINAMIC Motorsport Maserati mastered a treacherous 50-minute contest at the Spanish track, rising from 10th on the grid to claim the spoils. They beat fellow Pro-Am runner Jörg Viebahn and his rookie NM Racing team-mate Andy Cantu in a thrilling scrap for the win, while Martin Koch and Reinhard Kofler put the class crown beyond doubt with a seventh-place finish.
The fight for the Am Drivers’ titles – and both Teams’ championships – will be decided in tomorrow’s final race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as Jean-Luc Beaubelique and pole-sitter Gilles Vannelet collected their class win ahead of Alexandre Leroy (#24 TFT Racing Maserati).
Calamia and Pampini reign supreme in Barcelona opener
A strong start on a wet circuit allowed Vannelet to snatch the lead into Turn 1, but the Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG soon came under fire from Dominik Olbert in the #90 Razoon - more than racing KTM. A move around the outside of the #87 car put Olbert out front by the end of the opening tour, only for technical gremlins to strike one lap later.
After a blistering start from sixth to second, the Pro-Am NM Racing Mercedes-AMG of Viebhan was perfectly placed to take full advantage, while the #89 RTR Projects KTM of Lennart Marioneck also dispatched Vannelet for second.
A three-way battle ensued, with the trio trading places right up until the mandatory pit stops, Vannelet taking Viebahn for the lead just as the window opened. The Akkodis ASP crew’s efforts to negate the success seconds carried over from the previous event at Monza didn’t quite pay off and Cantu – in for Viebhan – returned the #888 to the top of the order ahead of Matej Homola (#89 KTM) and Philippe Prette (#2 LP Racing Maserati).
After a brief safety car interruption required to recover the stationery #61 Mercedes-AMG, Calamia was the man on the move on the drying track. Rocketing the DINAMIC Motorsport Maserati from fourth to claim first with 10 minutes remaining, Calamia’s charge sealed a maiden Pro-Am win with Pampanini in just their second event since joining the series.
NM Racing’s Cantu and Viebhan secured their best result of the year, while Homola and Marioneck completed the Pro-Am podium for RTR Projects. LP Racing’s Leonardo Gorini and Carlo Tamburini (#1 Maserati) climbed from sixth to finish fourth in class ahead of the sister #88 Audi driven by Alfio Andrea Spina and Gianluca Giorgi.
It meant that sixth place was enough for the #812 Team MZR crew of Koch and Kofler to provisionally clinch the Pro-Am crown, capping an impressive campaign that has so far yielded five victories and a further five podiums.
Sealing the Am class victory helped strengthen Beaubelique and Vannelet’s position at the top of their points table, the Mercedes-AMG duo finishing sixth overall. Leroy secured second in class, but this was not enough to keep the Belgian in title contention for Sunday’s final race.
The third Am crew home was the sister #53 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG of Pascal Gibon and Christophe Bourret. Despite a pair of time penalties dropping Prette to fourth in class, the LP Racing charge still has an outside shot at the Am title, lying 23 points adrift of Vannelet and Beaubelique.
Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen finished eighth overall in the #80 Razoon – more than racing KTM, followed by Leroy and the #81 Bosi Race Tech Mercedes-AMG of Wim de Pundert and Bernd Schneider.
The Am Drivers’ crown and both Teams’ titles will be decided in the final Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli race of the season, which gets underway at 10:25 on Sunday morning. Watch it unfold live via the series website and GT World YouTube channel.
