GT Open - First win of the year for an Oregon Lambo with Pepper-Deledda

The Lambos of Team Oregon conquered its first win of the season on a warm afternoon at Hockenheim in a Race 1 marked by an eventful finale after a safety car period. Alessio Deledda and Jordan Pepper took their respective maiden and second win in the series, beating the Motopark Mercedes of Diego Menchaca-Marcos Siebert and the Spirit of Race Ferrari of Nicola Marinangeli-Vincent Abril.

The turning point of the race was the restart of the mentioned safety car, when the leading GetSpeed Mercedes of Anthony Bartone-Fabian Schiller, which had led the race until then, lost positions and then spun, closing in tenth.

Marco Pulcini and Eddie Cheever (Spirit of Race Ferrari) took their second Pro-Am win of the year while the Am race yielded a third different race winner, the GetSpeed Mercedes of Kiki San Nana-Adam Osieka.

THE RACE - Fabian Schiller had taken pole on his home track, ahead of the other Mercedes of Yannick Mettler (SPS) and the Car Collection Porsche of Alex Fontana, and kept the advantage at the start, with a clean launch, ahead of Mettler, Pepper, Fontana, Sebert, Ineichen, Pitamber, Khodair and Reicher.

There was rubbing in the group in lap one, with Petrov going wide into the grass after a contact and having to pit, Reicher also forced to the box with some damage, and further back, more contacts which ended with the AF cars of Saada and Kirchmayr stranded in the gravel and Blazek being imposed a drive-through.

The safety car intervened for two laps and after the restart, Schiller kept the lead firmly, while Peppr passed Mettler for second, with Fontana also passing his country fellow in lap 12. Siebert was fifth ahead of Ineichen, Pitamber and Marinangeli, with Khodair spinning in lap 16, immediately before the opening of the driver change window. In Am, Rumpfkeil was first at that moment ahead of Korzeniowski and Cipriani.

After all stops, Bartone kept the lead, with an advantage of 4 seconds on Deledda and Menchaca, while Leo Pulcini took fourth from Hash, soon passed also by Abril and Baumann, although the latter received a 20-second penalty for track limits infringements. In Am, Neumann is in the lead, well ahead of Cipriani.

At the end of lap 19, there is a contact between Hash and Bateman in the last corner, as the Brit tries to pass the Porsche. Both cars spin and rejoin but Hash collects Milota on his way back to the track, with the Audi finishing its race against the barriers.

The safety car is out again, and at the restart, there is drama as Bartone is passed by Deledda, Menchaca and Pulcini, then spins and finishes 10th.  There is more rubbing in the group, and engine cut-offs for Neumann who slows down before retrieving pace.

Eventually, Deledda wins over Menchaca and Abril, with Leo Pulcini finishing fifth because of a 5-second penalty for not serving the entire handicap. The other Pulcini, Marco, is fourth overall and wins in Pro-Am ahead of Basz and Iken, while Osieka is first in Am, beating Cipriani and Neumann.

Results are HERE