Each round of the championship has two 60-minute races, compared to the 50-minute races of the pervious years.
This year, the powerful GT2 cars are shod with a new type of tyre, providing even more grip and also improving the performances on track.
Christophe Bourret and Pascal Gibon, an experienced duo in the world of endurance racing, headed this year into their second season (together) in GT2, at the heart of the Akkodis ASP Team. After a very good season in 2024, notably marked by an AM victory in the second race in Hockenheim, they finished 4th in the championship. The goal this year is to do even better!
As of the first sessions, the duo was in good shape. In pre-qualifying, they finished P4 AM (P8 overall). The two qualifying sessions (2x20’) were hard fought. In Q1, Christophe Bourret finished P3 AM, and in Q2, Pascal Gibon slid into P2.
Race 1 – A first well deserved podium!
The first of the two races started under turbulent skies. Bad weather settled over the south-east of France and the temperature was around 12°C.
Christophe Bourret was the first to head off. From the 4th row on the starting grid, the #53 Mercedes-AMG GT2 managed to extract itself from the pack without any trouble, but its momentum was stopped in the first lap with the safety car coming on track. At the restart, 10 minutes later, there was no change to the classification (P3 AM).
As the laps went by, the pace accelerated and Christophe Bourret made a great effort to come back to the front. Setting excellent lap times, he caught up to the category leader and was sitting in P2 with 36 minutes to go (P6 overall).
After the driver change, Pascal Gibon continued on this path and had the (AM) leading #1 Maserati in his line of sight. As the laps went by, the gap shrunk down and with 10 minutes to go, he was right up against him. The end of the race was intense but the driver of the #53 Mercedes-AMG had to content himself with second place as he crossed the finish line.
Race 2 – A second wonderful podium!
Early on Sunday afternoon, the weather was still as complicated above the Paul Ricard circuit. The rain soaked the track for the second race – wet tyres and lights on for everyone.
After the two regulation formation laps, due to the track conditions, the drivers were off. The start was quite turbulent and the positions changed about. Pascal Gibon, who started on the 4th row (P7) and P2 AM, had to relinquish a position.
But the track conditions were delicate, which curbed the enthusiasm of some of the drivers. Managing such powerful cars in these kinds of conditions could quite likely result in excursions off the ideal trajectory and disruptions of their regular pace.
After 17 minutes of racing, the AM leaders made contact, which allowed Pascal Gibon to retake 2nd position. Unfortunately, a few laps later, he was also caught out and spun out by himself in turn 14.
When Christophe Bourret took the wheel for his stint, he was P4, but the last fifteen minutes of the race were a real treat. The driver of the #53 went into ‘max attack’ mode and the pace increased lap by lap, coming up first on the #28, which he overtook, and then passed a Mercedes-AMG. The two identical cars were neck and neck with less than 10 minutes to go. A great cat-and-mouse battle ensued. When Christophe finally got the better of his adversary to take second place, there were only five minutes to go, and the leader was too far off for any hope of catching up. So the team took another well-deserved podium for the crew of the #53 who was now in 3rd place in the AM championship classification (36 points), as is Akkodis ASP Team.
The next round will be on the 17th and 18th of May at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands.