Dekeyser takes both races in Catalunya
raceroom
Round Two of the Porsche GT3 Cup Championship saw the drivers in Barcelona for two early morning support races. Weather was clear and the track temperature was an already toasty 25 degrees, even at 8am.
Amedeo Dekeyser may have been sitting fourth in the Championship at the start of the weekend, but there was good reason for him strutting into the paddock before Saturday qualifying because, as the teams packed up on the Sunday afternoon, Dekeyser would have two pole positions and two wins under his belt to move to the top of the standings, ahead of Ralf Arella and previous leader Jak Camoletto.
The writing was really on the cards during Saturday qualifying - Dekeyser setting a time of 1:47.040, six-tenths quicker than closest rival Radek Pawlaczek with Xavi Pinsach in third just a hundredth or so off second place. Ralf Arella struggled down in eighth, well over a second off pole.
The run down to turn one from the start saw the cars four-wide, but with Dekeyser leading through, followed by Pinsach. Chaos reigned behind, however, as Callum Morgan struggled to get his car turning under braking and collided with Pawlaczek who was already navigating the corner. Morgan’s car slewed right into the oncoming cars of teammates Aaron Cleaver and Ryan Leech, with Cleaver being spun around a full 180 degrees. Magnus Smedegard then T-boned the stationary Morgan and all four found themselves at the back of the pack at the end of lap one with significant damage.
As the race progressed, Dekeyser looked imperious and stretched his lead to ten seconds. However, the battle for second was really hard fought with Pinsach struggling with tyre wear towards the end of the race, with Camoletto, Pawlaczek and Arella breathing down his neck with never more than two seconds covering all four. With just over five minutes to go, Camoletto was close enough at the final chicane to make a move on Pinsach. The aggression met with stout defending and the two touched causing Pinsach to lose momentum out of the corner. Jak could have passed easily but showed great sportsmanship to back off and allow Xavi to retain his position. However, Camoletto’s teammate, Pawlaczek took full advantage of the situation and passed him down the straight to take the fight to Pinsach. But that loss of time for the Paradigm Shift boys really sealed Pinsach’s second place, Camoletto eventually repassed Radek for the final spot on the podium and the ever-consistent Arella came home fifth. Pere Tutusaus had a lonely race in sixth, never able to catch the four ahead, and special mention to Magnus Smedegard who managed to climb up to eleventh after his disaster in T1.
Majestically though, Dekeyser took the chequered flag to win by over thirteen seconds with a superb drive.
Qualifying for race two gave signs that things were unlikely to change, even with the chance to adjust setups. This time, Pinsach put in a 1:46.971 and must have thought he’d nailed pole only for Dekeyser to set a stunning lap time of 1:46.570, easily the quickest lap of the entire meeting. Ralf Arella gave himself a chance in the race by hauling himself up to third with Tutusaus close behind in fourth. Jak Camoletto struggled however and could only manage seventh.
Following a blistering start, Pinsach got down into turn one easily ahead of Dekeyser with Arella and Tutusaus close behind. Callum Morgan had a fantastic getaway that looked suspiciously like a jump start. As I write, the steward’s are still deliberating over whether a penalty will be applied. But, as in race one, there was trouble at the first turn with Ric Binnersley in the Jagermeister car outbraking himself and, in an attempt to avoid Simon Fillingham, took to the grass on the inside only to collect Simon later around the corner as he rejoined, his brakes useless against the dew-laden grass. Once again, both the Pitstop UK lads, Cleaver and Leech, were affected and Camoletto’s poor qualifying also saw him involved as he ploughed into Fillingham’s stricken car. To add insult to injury, Camoletto had only just departed the accident when Andre Mol also smashed into the same side of Fillingham’s car in a desperate attempt to avoid him. The damage was so severe to Simon’s 911 that extensive repairs were required and saw him finishing the race three laps down at the back of the field.
Up front though, Pinsach was away and looked to have the pace of Dekeyser until a mistake on the exit of turn one on lap eight gave Amedeo the chance to take the lead and, from there, never looked back. Arella almost snatched second at the same time, but Pinsach managed to hold the position through the sweeping T3. However, it wouldn’t last as, once again, Pinsach’s tyres couldn’t hold out for thirty minutes and Arella forced his way through with an excellent overtake at the chicane following an error from the struggling Spaniard to finish second, Pinsach coming home in third. An impressive drive from David Dhoore saw him finish in fourth, ahead of the consistent Tutusaus. Special mention of this race goes to Jak Camoletto who, like Smedegard in race one, manged to haul himself up the field following the lap one incident, but possibly would have earnt driver of his day as he came home in sixth.
But the weekend belonged to one man, and one man only. Amedeo Dekeyser will leave Barcelona feeling like he owns the keys to the city and on top of the world. And, after his sterling performances, he’s certainly on top of the championship as we head to Zandvoort for round three in a fortnight’s time.