Spielberg RST: Palttala and Schiller score confident Endurance race win
Markus Palttala and Fabian Schiller took the championship lead in the Endurance class after winning the 70-minute Renault Sport Trophy race at Spielberg.
#9 Team Marc VDS Renault RS01: Markus Palttala, Fabian Schiller
Palttala closely followed pole-sitter Pieter Schothorst in the early stages of the race and the Marc VDS car ended up in the lead after the pitstops, going on to claim victory.
In the opening stint, Palttala and Schothorst comfortably led the field and their advantage was stretched even further when third-placed Bruno Bonifacio was forced to pull over due to car problems.
That promoted Roy Geerts into third but Schothorst's sister car was 18 seconds adrift by the time the pit window opened.
Palttala was first to pit between the leaders, giving his seat to Amateur class teammate Fabian Schiller, but Schothorst followed him a lap later.
His father Jeroen Schothorst took over but had lost the lead to Schiller and was soon back in the pits.
The Mark VDS car of Schiller, as such, inherited a lead more than 10 seconds and the German quickly increased it to an even bigger margin.
Schiller, who is yet to be defeated in the Amateur class, cruised through the final half hour to comfortably secure his team's second win in three races.
Miguel Ramos, replacing Geerts, ended up running second, closely followed by Fran Rueda and Frederik Blomstedt.
Ramos could not pull away from the duo and Rueda even put some pressure on him during the final stages but, with no overtaking attempts occurring, Ramos went on to score runner-up.
Rueda and teammate Tanart Sathienthirakul brought a second Marc VDS car on the podium, the latter celebrating his first podium in the series.
Blomstedt and Kevin Korjus missed out on the top three by five seconds in fourth with Duncan Huisman and Max Braams completing the top five further 25.8s behind.
Davide Roda and Dario Capitanio finished sixth, the former withstanding pressure from Carmen Jorda, who settled for seventh alongside teammate Jordan Grogor.
Final results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Markus Palttala Fabian Schiller |
Team Marc VDS | 1h12m44.449s |
2 |
Roy Geerts Miguel Ramos |
Equipe Verschuur | +19.778s |
3 |
Tanart Sathienthirakul Fran Rueda |
Team Marc VDS |
+20.619s |
4 |
Kevin Korjus Frederik Blomstedt |
R-ace GP | +37.207s |
5 |
Duncan Huisman Max Braams |
V8 Racing | +1m12.418s |
6 |
Dario Capitano Davide Roda |
Oregon Team | +1m23.148 |
7 |
Jordan Grogor Carmen Jorda |
V8 Racing | +1m34.387 |
8 |
Pieter Schothorst Jeroen Schothorst |
Equipe Verschuur |
+1 lap |
9 |
Raoul Owens Jean-Marc Merlin |
Race GP | +1 lap |
10 |
David Fumanelli Ash Hand |
Oregon Team | +1 lap |
11 |
Diego Mejia Ben Anderson |
Duqueine Engineering | +1 lap |
Ret |
Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen |
High Class Racing | +32 laps |
Ret |
Nicky Pastorelli Jelle Bellen |
V8 Racing | +33 laps |
Ret |
Bruno Bonifacio Andres Mendez |
Oregon Team | +34 laps |
Ret |
Lonni Martins Christophe Hamon |
Duqueine Engineering | +37 laps |
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