Lucas Auer claims race 1 honours in Portimão

Mercedes driver Lucas Auer won the opening race of the 2022 season after a safety car restart late on in the race.

The Austrian kept with pole-sitter Mirko Bortolotti throughout the race to then be in a position to capitalise on the Italian making a mistake on the late restart. Auer drove faultlessly thereafter to take the chequered flag for Team WINWARD.

Saturday started with the first round of qualifying that would set the grid for the afternoon’s race and it was series newcomer Mirko Bortolotti that captured pole position at the Portuguese track. As a result of acquiring pole, it also meant that GT Racing veterans Grasser Racing Team also secured their debut pole in the competition.

The session was closely fought with the Lamborghini narrowly pipping Mikael Grenier by 0.011 seconds. The Canadian looked to initially be a surprise pace setter as his 1:39:689 looked to be the session best before it was usurped. It was still enough for second although only just, Lucas Auer finished in third by only a further 0.03secs back.

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This was the theme throughout as with 5 minutes left of qualifying the top 6 were covered by 0.235s. As the session came to its conclusion the time gaps were only reducing as each driver finished their final laps. Felipe Fraga put his Ferrari in fourth place with a time of 1:39:738 meaning that the top 4 were covered by 0.06s.

In his series debut, Sebastien Loeb lined up twenty-first for his AlphaTauri liveried Ferrari.

The Race started with what would be the main story for three-quarters of the race. Bortolotti and Grenier raced side by side down to turn one where the Lamborghini would come out on top and lead for the foreseeable future.

Retirements from Dev Gore, Nico Muller and Marco Wittman were the notable events before the pit window opened. David Schumacher Ricardo Feller and Maximilian Buhk were the first three cars to enter the pitlane before Gotz and Rast pit a lap later. Gotz and Rast exited the pitlane bumper to bumper but also very close to Feller, who would capitalise on his rival’s cold tires and pass Gotz into the turn 5 hairpin. Rast would also then make the move a few corners later.

With Auer up in second place after passing Grenier, the Austrian makes his pitstop to retain his net second despite a sticky front right wheel. Bortolotti makes his mandatory stop a lap later along with Nicki Thiim. Whilst Bortolotti retained his lead over Auer, Thiim loses his net fourth to Luca Stolz who already had his tires warmed up after pitting earlier.

Then came the moment that threw a massive spanner into everyone’s races. With 26 minutes to go, Rolf Ineichen stopped out on track just after turn 1 which brought out the first safety car of the season. After the remaining drivers had conducted their stops, Bortolotti assumed the lead followed by Auer.

With sixteen minutes to go the safety car pulled in and as the lights went to green, the GRT machine didn’t get going with Mirko remarking that he had no power. This led to not only Lucas Auer taking the lead but also a collision involving Grenier, Rast and Felipe Fraga. The result of having to check up behind the Lamborghini meant that Fraga and Rene Rast’s races were done whilst Grenier was running with damage.

The rest of the race became a battle between a recovering Bortolotti, who had fallen to fourth, and a defensive Maro Engel for the final podium spot. Lap after lap the Italian was trying different lines to get ahead of the Mercedes drive however Engel was always able to get the drive off of the last corner and stay ahead. That all changed though on the penultimate lap as Mirko managed to get his car on the inside of Engel coming onto the main straight with the move being completed into turn 1.

Maro Engel would also get a 5sec penalty for a pitstop infringement which dropped him to tenth.

Upfront however there was no more drama, Auer took the first win of the season with a calm and measured drive and Stolz brought his Team HRT Mercedes home in second place despite sometimes falling into the battle for third.

Day 2 gets underway tomorrow with qualifying at 9:00am followed by race 2 at 12:30.