De Haan-Fagg (Optimum McLaren) take second win at Paul Ricard

Charlie Fagg and Sam De Haan in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S took their second win of the season in Race 1 today at Circuit, extending slightly their lead in the standings, now six points (81 vs 7() over Diego Menchaca-Marcus Siebert (Motopark Mercedes), who came in second today.

In the warmth of the French track, the Lionspeed Porsche of Patrick Kolb and Alfred Renauer took third, its first podium of the finish, after Pierre-Louis Chovet in the Oregon Team Lambo shared with Max Paul dropped down to 15th in the last lap following a failed overtaking attempt for the lead which resulted in a slow puncture.

Pro-Am leaders Marco Pulcini-Eddie Cheever (AF Corse Ferrari) extended their lead thanks to a third win, beating the Bonaldi Motorsport Lambo of Sanporn Jao Javil-Milos Pavlovic, who took their maiden podium, and the Kessel Racing Ferrari of Nicolò Rosi-Niccolò Schirò.

In Am, a Ferrari 296 won for the first time with Giorgio Sernagiotto-Alessandro Cozzi, who beat their AF Teammates Jean-Claude Saada-Conrad Grunewald and the Motopark Mercedes of Heiko Neumann-Timo Rumpfkeil.

THE RACE - It’s warm (over 30 degrees) as the race starts, with Max Paul (Oregon Lambo) and Charlie Fagg (Optimum McLaren) in first row. The two posted exactly the same time in qualifying (2.01.922) but pole was awarded to the German as he did the time earlier in the session.

It’s the Lambo leading at the start in front of Fagg, Cheever, Basz, Barr, Schirò and Arrow, but at the back of the grid there are contacts in turn 2 with San Nana being sent into the wall and Reicher also put out of contention. The safety car is deployed while Dezoteux and Cipriani stop in the pits for repairs and Reicher is also in shortly after.

race restarts after five laps, with Paul still in the lead ahead of Fagg, while Basz takes third from Cheever in lap 10 with a beautiful move at the chicane. Barr is fifth ahead of Schirò, Arrow, Menchaca and Jans. They all get to the pit stop, which opens in lap 11, with narrow gaps.

After all stops (lap 18), De Haan leads with 8 seconds on Chovet, who has passed Pulcini, then Siebert and Kolb also very close, followed by Perolini, Marinangeli, Pitamber, Jedlinski and Sernagiotto, first in Am.

The second stints sees Chovet reducing the gap on De Haan and catching him three laps from the end, but an overtaking attempt ends in a spin, with the Frenchman dropping to third and reporting a slow puncture as a consequence. He’ll end the race drifting a lot and finishing 15th.

Siebert takes second ahead of Kolb, an excellent third, and Pulcini, while the big battle for seventh involving nine cars is won by Marinangeli, ahead of Pitamber, Pavlovic, Rueda, Rosi (who got a 5-second penalty for track limits), Sernagiotto (winner in Am), Perolini and Mettler.