Kell-Macdonald (Greystone GT McLaren) win Race 1 at the Algarve

They retook it where they had left it : James Kell and Dean Macdonald, winners of the Monza 500 which closed the 2024 season, have won the first race of the 2025 International GT Open, at the wheel of their McLaren 720S entered by Greystone GT.  “It’s nice to be at the top again and this year we’ll definitely go for the title”, said Kell at the end.

It was a clean and straight success for the British duo, materialised at the end of a lively race, which saw intense fighting and where many young talents shone.

Second after a final charge was the Eastalent Racing Audi of reigning champions Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase, ahead of the Mercedes by GetSpeed of Anthony Bertone and Fabian Schiller.

In Pro-Am, victory for the SPS Mercedes of Valentin Pierburg-Dominik Baumann, ahead of ‘Hash’-Fontana (Car Collection Porsche) and Jans-Walker (SPS Mercedes) while in Am, Gino Forgione-Michele Rugolo, driving the Ferrari 296 of AF Corse, beat the Garage 59 McLaren of local hero Miguel Ramos and Mark Sansom, and the Vimana Mercedes of Naran.

THE RACE – At the start, poleman Schiller had to battle side-by-side with Dean Macdonald for a couple of corners, before taking the lead. The top duo was closely followed in the early stages by Mettler, B.Grove, Neumann, Porter, Basz and Krutten. After a few laps, Schiller was still in the lead by a mere 1.1 second over MacDonald and Cairoli, with Mettler 3 seconds behind, then Mosca, Basz, Porter, Kruetten, Ebbon, B.Grove and Reicher. In Am, Miguel Ramos was in the lead during the first stint.

The close gaps were completely wiped out when the safety car had to intervene in lap 8 after S.Jedlinski and Hernández had a contact, with the Mercedes left stranded along the track.

Soon after the restart in lap 11 the driver change window opened. After all pit stops, Kell took the lead over Bartone, followed by Revesz, Haase, Müller, Baumann, Meakin, Emson, Visoiu and Walker while Sansom was keeping the lead in Am. Once again, it was a matter of some charging and others defending, which got solved in the closing laps.

Kell passed Bartone and the American was later passed also by Haase and hit by Revesz who took third but was demoted to fourth after a post-race penalty of 5 seconds. In the other classes, Baumann took the Pro-Am win and Rugolo passed Sansom to win in Am.