Race weekend at Red Bull Ring

This popular Austrian circuit hosted the second round of ESET V4 Cup season and it gave fans everything they wanted – a great mix between domination and a thrilling drama until the end.

Despite Marcin Jedlinski missed ESET GT race weekend, his replacement Mateusz Lisowski had no trouble putting Olimp Racing team‘s name on the top of the results sheet. He managed to win both Sprints with Audi R8 LMS GT3 without letting anyone near him. The second race was also marked by a heavy crash by Richard Chlad jr., whose front left wheel lodged in and his black and gold Audi R8 LMS hit the barriers very hard. Chlad was uninjured, but his car is badly damaged. Despite that accident, Chlad is still leading the GT3 category, while Samuel Sládečka remains a GTC category leader with four wins in four races.

For Chlad jr. there was at least some redemption at Red Bull Ring, as he won the GT3 Endurance race on Saturday evening, while Filip Sládečka dominated in the GTC category.

While ESET GT shows the best of the sports cars, touring cars fans got their reward in ESET TCR series, which provided the most thrilling fun of the weekend. Milovan Vesnič took a win in the first race, but he was probably the only driver not to struggle. Others had issues and even penalties for various reasons like Dušan Kouřil and his penalty for a wrong position on the grid, or Tomáš Pekař who was abusing track limits. But that was only a preparation for what was about to come. The second race offered changeable conditions which always adds dramatic moments to the race. First, it all looked well for Vesnič again, but he lost the lead because of technical issues. Then a big battle between Dušan Kouřil, Jáchym Galáš and Tomáš Pekař followed. Attractive battling, many overtakes and driving on the limit while keep switching between dry and wet lines to cool the tyres. It was a perfect showcase for Motorsport racing. In the end, it was Pekař who won the race, despite it being his first outing with Renault Megane, while Galáš dropped out of the battle because of a puncture.

On the other hand, ESET TC did not offer so much fun, but the results showed how talented these drivers are. There were double winners in all three categories – Mark Jedloczky in TC, Michal Makeš in Clio Cup and Andreas Eichhorn in Cruze Cup. It just underlines what we saw in the opening round of the season in Hungary, that the competition has to do a much better job.

In the E2-2000 Formula category, Paolo Brajnik took two wins despite difficult conditions in the second race. The Italian driver was unbeatable with his new Dallara 318 single-seaters. At least in the F3 category, there were two winners across the weekend with Sandro Zeller finishing on the top step of the podium in the first race, while Tom Beckhäuser took a win in the second one after dealing with changeable conditions.

Twingo Cup is a highly-competitive series, where dragging is so important, which is also a crucial technique for Red Bull Ring. However, there is a driver on the grid who goes against the flow. Mark Škulj is so dominant, that he managed to win both races. Also in the first race of the weekend, he even won by six seconds. It was much closer in the second race, where he had to defend against Nik Štefančič, but Škulj did well and took another win. After four races he has three wins and the Slovenian driver is becoming the one to beat.

Výsledky
TC/Clio Cup/Cruze Cup Race 1 / TC/Clio Cup/Cruze Cup Race 2
GT Race 1 / GT Race 2
ESET TCR Race 1 / ESET TCR Race 2
Endurance
Formula L21 Race 1/ Formula L21 Race 2
Twingo Cup Race 1 / Twingo Cup Race 2