It all looked like an easy victory for Mateusz Lisowski in Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Olimp Racing team. The Polish driver was comfortably leading the race and was gaining more time on his competitors in every lap. Even when nobody was a threat to him, he kept pushing. But driving on the limit took its toll and due to a constant corner-cutting in Turn 9, he was given a drive-through penalty. The penalty came in the last minute of the race, so it turned into a time penalty that ultimately cost him a win.
From the beginning until the end, there was a big battle for the 2nd and 3rd between Filip Sládečka in Lamborghini Huracan and Richard Chlad jr. in Audi R8 LMS ultra. Both cars were just two seconds apart and they did not seem to be affected by lapping slower cars of multiple categories. It was a big mental battle about who is going to make the mistake first. However, both drivers put on a perfect performance, with almost identical speed and a drive on the limit.
What made it even more thrilling was a fact, that both drivers stayed in the car for the whole race. There was no driver change during the pit stops, so both were just fully concentrated on the battle and the corners ahead all the time. This was something special for the fans.
Their battle got spiced up with just 17 minutes to go as Safety Car went out. After the restart, the gap between the two narrowed to less than half a second. Sládečka tried to build a gap, but Chlad did everything he could to stay close to a silver Lamborghini. And they still had no idea that this is actually a battle for the win as Lisowski was facing a penalty.
In the end, Sládečka managed to keep calm and took his second Endurance win of the season, after winning in Hungaroring before. For Sládečka it was also a victory in the GTC category ahead of a car driven by Bronislav Formánek and Jiří Mičánek, who made his return behind the wheel after a long time.
Richard Chlad jr. finished 2nd overall, but he won in the GT3 category ahead of Mateusz Lisowski. Libor Milota then finished 3rd and took his first ever Endurance podium in Mercedes-AMG.
In the D4-3500 category, Jáchym Galáš in Volkswagen Golf celebrated a victory after finishing ahead of Carol Wittke – Petr Fulín duo in SEAT Cupra. Petr Válek finished 3rd in his BMW M3 GTR, while Kismarty-Lechner–Tóth and Adámek–Horňák had problems with their cars.
Race results
Endurance