Jurriaan De Back and Paul Meijer took their fourth win of the season in Race 1 under a scorching sun at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The Dutch pair of HWM Motorsport put in a perfect performance, starting from pole and executing it perfectly to strengthen their championship lead to 9 points.
They beat the BiRace Motorsport pair of Diego Stifter-Lodovico Laurini, who took their best finish of the season result, and their direct rivals in the championship race, Pietro Delli Guanti-Matteo Luvisi (FAEMS Team by Ebimotors).
On his return to the series, reigning co-champion Ian Rodríguez, together with Andrea Galli, won in Pro-Am at the wheel of the Ebimotors car specially entered for this race, while Leando Martins and Dieter Svepes (LMR Motorsport) signed their second success of the season in Am.
THE RACE – Meijer had a perfect kick-off from the pole, with Rodriguez second quickly passed by Stifner, followed by Garcia, Longoni, Delli Guanti (who had a 5-place penalty on the grid carried from Misano), Pedrini, Zaenen and Martins.
Positions remained stable up to the pit stop, with a spin for Zaenen as the only race fact to report. After all driver changes, De Back has a comfortable 19-second lead over Galli, who will have to progressively let Laurini, Luvisi and Martinelli pass but retains first position in Am.
The action is behind, with Monteiro and Navarrete having contact and both being sanctioned, similarly to Zaenen and García (for not serving the entire handicap). There is a close fight between Babini, Svepes and Barros, who has to stop with a door flapping, and spins for Salubre and Sampaio.
All this does not affect the leading positions, with De Back winning with 11 seconds on Laurini and 19 on Luvisi. Martinelli is fourth ahead of Galli (first in Pro-Am), Schirò, Babini and Svepes, first in Am.
