1st Round of the Women's GT Junior CupCircuito da Boavista, Portugal52 laps / 7,407 km (4,6 mi)QualifyingWeather: Cold, dry, overcast
The inaugural season of the Women's GT Junior Cup has finally begun. Twelve exciting races all over Europe lie ahead of us, and the tension was already in the air at Portugal. 52 laps on the same tyres and without refueling. Not an easy task for the ladies, but these are the rules. Teams may only change tyres, when the weather changes or the current set appears to be unsafe from the start.
Refueling is allowed right before the race, so none of the drivers had to go into qualifying with full tanks. Leah Pruett grabbed her first pole-position, with Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Alessandra Neri hot in her tracks. The winner of this round will most certainly come from one of these three ladies, if nothing unexpected happens.
The Circuito da Boavista is one of the very few circuits, that was already used in the sixties and hasn't changed much since then. It's a lot more challenging than Monaco, but certainly not as famous. Alison MacLeod and Veronica Valverde found the track extremely hard to master, which shows in their qualifying performance.
All drivers were well within 105 % of the pole-position time set by Leah Pruett, and that means, we'll get to see a full grid on Sunday.
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01 Leah Pruett (Mercedes-Benz) 1:58.208
02 Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (Ferrari) 1:58.276
03 Alessandra Neri (Audi) 1:58.281
04 Collete Davis (McLaren) 1:58.457
05 Hillary Will (Mercedes-Benz) 1:58.472
06 Tiffany Chittenden (Dodge) 1:58.939
07 Natalia Kowalska (Lotus) 1:59.044
08 Shannon McIntosh (McLaren) 1:59.223
09 Alexandra Asmasoebrata (Bugatti) 1:59.224
10 Leilani Münter (Lotus) 1:59.358
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11 Elena Myers (Audi) 1:59.531
12 Veronica Valverde (Ferrari) 1:59.632
13 Kazumi Mikami (Bugatti) 1:59.721
14 Courtney Force (Jaguar) 1:59.791
15 Hiromi Kajikuma (Jaguar) 1:59.792
16 Gaby Dela Merced (Maserati) 1:59.833
17 Gwendolyn Hertzberger (Morgan) 1:59.919
18 Marika Diana (Chevrolet) 1:59.952
19 Vicky Piria (Nissan) 2:00.011
20 Sarah McCune (Nissan) 2:00.217
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21 Ramona Kiss (Toyota) 2:00.229
22 Mishael Abbott (Morgan) 2:00.327
23 Amber Anderson (Toyota) 2:00.403
24 Carmen Jorda (Maserati) 2:00.815
25 Alison MacLeod (Dodge) 2:01.031
26 Molly Taylor (BMW) 2:01.101
27 Emilee Tominovich (Chevrolet) 2:01.216
28 Elena Lana (BMW) 2:01.501
105 % = 2:06.118RaceWeather: Cold, dry, sunny
At the start, Leah Pruett and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky took off into the lead, the Mercedes SLS getting ahead in Turn 1. After the two cars ran together for a while, Pruett began to pull away from lap 5 onwards. From this point on, Ahlin-Kottulinsky came under increasing threat by Alessandra Neri in third. The Audi R8 LMS was not the best car for topspeed, but the narrow corners of the Boavista Circuit are the perfect environment for this car. Good cornering abilities and a lot of downforce allowed Alessandra Neri to stay close behind the Ferrari 458 GT3, waiting for the ideal opportunity to attack.
Leah Pruett stayed in the lead and controlled the race with ease, until the 28th lap. Alison MacLeod, who had had a very good start and had already taken 18th place from Marika Diana, was forced to retire on said lap with a blown engine. A quite unusual sight, given the fact, that GT engines nowadays are built to last at least thirty hours in race trim.
Natalia Kowalska crashed her Lotus on the same lap, while trying to pass Tiffany Chittenden for sixth place at Turn 4. These two retirements led to a first safety car phase, which slowed the remaining field down, until both cars could be removed from the track.
This also allowed Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Alessandra Neri to close in on the leading Mercedes SLS once again. The restart was scheduled for lap 31, and as soon as the safety car had left the track, Leah Pruett was in deep trouble. Ahlin-Kottulinsky nearly managed to outdrag her, but Pruett jumped inside the first corner right on time to shut the door on the Ferrari. Both car touched, but without further damage.
Collete Davis regained fourth place (she had lost this position at the start) and quickly caught up with the leading trio. But on lap 36, she seriously damaged her McLaren in the barriers at Turn 3 and was unable to carry on. This led to another short safety car phase, which was resolved on lap 38.
This time around Leah Pruett took control of the race immediately, but Alessandra Neri finally got the drop on Ahlin-Kottulinsky and took second place by squeezing her car through an almost nonexistent gap in Turn 2, which could have easily led to both drivers retiring. From this moment on, Neri used all the cornering and braking advantages of her R8 to keep Ahlin-Kottulinsky at bay until the end of the race.
Lap 40 brought the end for Ramona Kiss in the second Toyota, turning this weekend into a complete desaster for Loyer's Junior Team. It was a tragic end too, because Kiss was defending 18th position against both BMWs, Tominovich's Corvette and Jorda's faster Maserati, but went off at Turn 3 and parked her Toyota there, after damaging the rear suspension by hitting the barriers.
Still twelve laps to go, but while most drivers had to slow down in order to save their tyres, neither Vicky Piria nor Sarah McCune had trouble with the tyre wear at all. Somehow the Goodyear compound worked best on the Nissan Nismo GTR GT3 for some reason, which in turn aided both Piria and McCune to climb up the ranks fairly quick during the last quarter of this race.
There was a shocking moment on lap 50 though, when Piria tried to take seventh place from Asmasoebrata in the Bugatti. Piria made her move down the Avenida da Boavista, heading for Turn 3. Asmasoebrata realized, the Nissan was directly in her slipstream and changed her line earlier than before. What she didn't realize though, was that Piria was already beside her, when she pulled to the left. The two collided in Turn 3 and spun, but neither of them hit the barriers, although it was too close for comfort in Asmasoebrata's case. Both managed to carry on without losing a position, but because of this incident they had also lost contact with Tiffany Chittenden in sixth place.
The battle for second continued right to the line, with Neri fending off Ahlin-Kottulinsky. The Swedish Ferrari pilot tried everything, but Neri held her off all the way to the chequered flag. No matter what Ahlin-Kottulinsky tried, Neri could match it. I guess it's safe to say, that we'll get to witness a lot more of those great duels as the season progresses.
Leah Pruett controlled the race from start to finish, despite that crucial moment on lap 31. Although she was never pulling too far away, she had the undisputed advantage, that Neri and Ahlin-Kottulinsky were fighting for second place instead of chasing after the SLS in front. Adrian Reynard really proved to be a guarantee for race wins, like he always was, even though he didn't design or build the SLS AMG GT3 himself.
After this first Round, Mercedes-Benz was already leading Audi by 31 points in the Constructor's Standings.
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01 Leah Pruett (Mercedes-Benz) 52 Laps
02 Alessandra Neri (Audi) + 3.880
03 Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (Ferrari) + 5.376
04 Hillary Will (Mercedes-Benz) + 6.648
05 Leilani Münter (Lotus) + 7.239
06 Tiffany Chittenden (Dodge) + 8.584
07 Alexandra Asmasoebrata (Bugatti) + 19.119
08 Vicky Piria (Nissan) + 19.599
09 Hiromi Kajikuma (Jaguar) + 27.923
10 Elena Myers (Audi) + 28.397
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11 Veronica Valverde (Ferrari) + 28.705
12 Sarah McCune (Nissan) + 29.719
13 Courtney Force (Jaguar) + 30.111
14 Kazumi Mikami (Bugatti) + 34.800
15 Marika Diana (Chevrolet) + 36.364
16 Mishael Abbott (Morgan) + 36.692
17 Gwendolyn Hertzberger (Morgan) + 38.118
18 Molly Taylor (BMW) + 40.953
19 Elena Lana (BMW) + 42.501
20 Emilee Tominovich (Chevrolet) + 42.066
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21 Carmen Jorda (Maserati) + 43.299
DNF Gaby Dela Merced (Maserati) 41 Laps Accident
DNF Ramona Kiss (Toyota) 40 Laps Accident
DNF Collete Davis (McLaren) 36 Laps Accident
DNF Shannon McIntosh (McLaren) 33 Laps Accident
DNF Natalia Kowalska (Lotus) 28 Laps Accident
DNF Alison MacLeod (Dodge) 28 Laps Engine
DNF Amber Anderson (Toyota) 16 Laps Accident
Driver's ChampionshipCode: Select all
01 Leah Pruett (Mercedes-Benz) 50 Points
02 Alessandra Neri (Audi) 40 Points
03 Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (Ferrari) 35 Points
04 Hillary Will (Mercedes-Benz) 30 Points
05 Leilani Münter (Lotus) 26 Points
06 Tiffany Chittenden (Dodge) 22 Points
07 Alexandra Asmasoebrata (Bugatti) 18 Points
08 Vicky Piria (Nissan) 15 Points
09 Hiromi Kajikuma (Jaguar) 12 Points
10 Elena Myers (Audi) 9 Points
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11 Veronica Valverde (Ferrari) 7 Points
12 Sarah McCune (Nissan) 5 Points
13 Courtney Force (Jaguar) 3 Points
14 Kazumi Mikami (Bugatti) 1 Point
Constructor's ChampionshipCode: Select all
01 Mercedes-Benz 80 Points
02 Audi 49 Points
03 Ferrari 42 Points
04 Lotus 26 Points
05 Dodge 22 Points
06 Nissan 20 Points
07 Bugatti 19 Points
08 Jaguar 15 Points
Reject of the Race: Carmen Jorda. Although she wasn't told to play it safe this time (unlike the pre-season tests), she was still nowhere to be found, although she should have fought for Championship points.
Next: Round 02 - Spain up on Friday the 4th (CET)!