Maiden win for Bergström-Menzel and the Car Collection Porsche at Barcelona

Porsche and Car Collection Racing took a much awaited and deserved maiden win in the International GT Open thanks to a perfect performance by Gustaf Bergström and Nico Menzel today in Race 1 at Barcelona. The Swede had to make the decisive move in his stint, the second, after the 911 of the German team lost the lead in the pit stop. Nico Menzel, starting from pole, had led the first stint but with a minimum gap on Fabian Schiller, who took second together with Anthony Bartone in the GetSpeed Mercedes.

Mikaeel Pitamber and Dominik Baumann finished third and are back to the podium, with the Mercedes of SPS automotive performance. The German team could celebrate a second success in Pro-Am for Valentin Pierburg and Aaron Walker, ahead of Marco Pulcini-Eddie Cheever (Spirit of Race Ferrari) and the ISR Racing audi of Filip Salaquarda-Libor Milota, who took their maiden podium. The results yielded the first verdict of the season: Marco Pulcini retains the Pro-Am crown.

In Am, Heiko Neumann and Timo Rumpfkeil (Motopark Mercedes) reconnected with the win, their fourth, beating Kiki San Nana-Adam Osieka (GetSpeed Mercedes) and Giuseppe Cipriani (Barone Rampante Lambo), who gets closer to the title. 

In the overall standings, Alessio Deledda (Oregon Team  Lambo), today sixth, is back in the lead by two points (92 vs 90) ahead of Reicher-Haase (Eastalent Racing Audi), today 10th.

THE RACE – At the start, Nico Menzel (the tenth different poleman in 12 races) keeps the advantage with Schille from row 2 taking second from Macdonald, followed by Menchaca, Dunner, Baumann, Cheever, Walker, L.Pulcini, Stanley and Webb.

Not much happens in the initial laps, except for Baumann taking fifth from Dunner, while the gaps remain extremely narrow. Hash hits S.Proctor and both are back to the bos-xes to retire, while there is a nice fight between Reicher and Rumpfkeil, and Marinangeli passes the Oregons of Deledda and Moretti. Korzeniowski leads in Am and the standings leaders Deledda and Reicher are in the middle of the group, 15th and 18th respectively.

Menzel and Schiller are still separated by less than a second when the pit stop window opens in lap 16. After all stops (lap 25), Bartone is in the lead ahead of Bergström by a second with Hanses third (+6 seconds), Kell (+8), Siebert (+9), then Pitamber, Pierburg, Pepper, Abril, Di Folco and M.Pulcini.

The final part of the race sees Bergström attacking Bartone and passing him in lap 30 to fly towards the win. The end is still eventful as Siebert brakes into Kell sending the McLaren into a spin (the Argentine would be penalized with 20 seconds after the race dropping to 8th), while Hansen, who had taken second from Bartone, hits the wall in the last lap after an apparent mechanical failure.  

Results are HERE