The Lexus winning streak in International GT Open has continued, with Albert Costa and Frommenwiler taking the chequered flag in the #54 Emil Frey Racing Lexus.

Costa retained his starting position, but was hindered in his attempts to build a gap over Mikkel Mac (#488 Spirit of Race Ferrari) due to two Safety Car periods. The first came after Franchesco Sini’s #007 Solaris Aston Martin and Martin Konrad’s #74 MS Racing Mercedes made contact at La Source on lap three, and were left stranded.

The green flag waved once more after just one full lap under the Safety Car. Soon, fourth placed Côme Ledogar (#88 Garage 59 McLaren) was coming under pressure from the #20 SPS Automotive Mercedes of Jules Szymkowiak. Contact at Les Combes sent both drivers into a spin, and while both parties eventually continued, the Safety Car had already been deployed for the second time in less than 20 minutes of racing. Szymkowiak’s co-driver Valentin Pierburg would eventually serve a drive-through penalty for the SPS Mercedes’ role in the incident, and ultimately retire.

With the race back underway, Albert Costa built a small lead, and handed the Emil Frey Lexus to Phillip Frommenwiler with just under thirty minutes left to run. Frommenwiler would retain the lead to take victory by 14 seconds, ahead of Victor Bouveng in the #65 Teo Martin BMW. After co-driver Fran Rueda made his stop early, Bouveng found himself in second position by the end of the 14 minute mid-race pit window. Miguel Ramos received the #488 Spirit of Race Ferrari from Mikkel Mac, and eased the car home for a third place finish, both overall and in PRO.

The battle for fourth was intense for much of the race’s second stint, with Vito Postiglione (#23 Imperale Lamborghini) doing a superb job of holding off Marco Cioci in the PRO-AM leading #8 AF Corse Ferrari. After almost 20 minutes of trying and failing to pass his countryman, Cioci slowed and pitted due to a puncture. Postiglione would eventually finish fifth, after losing out to Nelson Piquet Jr (#51 Teo Martin BMW) late on.

Michael Meadows (#10 Jordan Racing Bentley) capitalised on Cioci’s misfortune to take sixth overall and the PRO-AM victory, ahead of Shaun Balfe in the #22 Balfe Motorsport McLaren. The PRO-AM podium was rounded out by Allam Khodair in the #16 Drivex Mercedes.

In AM, Davide Rizzo took the #48 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari to top honours, while Luis Silva brought the #99 Sports & You Mercedes across the line for second in class.

It was a difficult day for former championship leaders Farnbacher Racing. Dominik Farnbacher brought in the Lexus after 25 minutes, and the team were seemingly in no rush to diagnose a problem. It never returned to the track, retiring just minutes before the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini that Dominik was set to drive overnight at the Nürburgring 24 Hours caught fire.

The Emil Frey Lexus squad (Frommenwiler/Costa) now leads the overall points.

RACE 1 RESULT >>