The Saturday Qualifying was a strong one … from P2 to P5 were Luca Ludwig, Arturo Melgar, Fernando Navarrete and Jorge Cabezas. Laura van den Hengel getting in Top 10 overall and P2 in class with a strong performance.

The first race started with impressive performance from Luca Ludwig and Fernando Navarrete. Unfortunately Laura van den Hengel had a technical issue that forced her to the pit. Thus Alba Vasquez was unfortunately not able to start again after driver change as the fire extinguisher went off by accident. Arturo Melgar who had started with the intent to stay in the front positions of the field, had to retire the car before the driver change to Stefano Bozzoni due to blown tire halfway throughout the race. Jorge Cabezas and Anny Frosio showed a strong performance. So did Martinus Richter who accomplished the race in P6 in AM class as sole driver and could fight for four positions in the relentless sun of Paul Ricard. Leon Chen / Mark Speakerwas followed him on P8 in class. Fernando Navarrete and Alvaro Lobera raced to podium after hard fights with P3 in AM class. Clear winner of race one: Luca Ludwig and Ivan Velasco who did a outstanding race and showed their exceptional racing skills.

The race on Sunday brought several surprises for the team of MERTEL Motorsport. We had to start with full 20 second handicap what made it extremely difficult to drive into the podiums. In heavy rain the race started behind the safety car. Ivan Velasco not in the best state of health but he fought hard. Although the weather was quite perfect to Luca Ludwig, Alvaro Lobera and Fernando Navarrete, which are strong in the rain. Great overtakes, hard fights, this was tremendous stuff they delivered in driving forward. This is the experience that is required in this weather conditions. They gained positions and Luca Ludwig tried to close the gap to the Porsches in front and could reach out for P4. Fernando Navarrete did tremendous racing and could step on the podium as winner of the AM class with Alvaro Lobera.
Martinus Richter on the No. 86 and Jorge Cabezas on No. 85 – after handed the car over from well rain-driving Anny Frosio did several overtakes and fought successfully for positions. Leon Chen / Mark Speakerwas showed a stabile performance. Unfortunately the female drivers couple Alba Vasquez / Laura van den Hengel suffered from technical issues with the car again and had a disappointing weekend after starting strong. They will attack again for sure.

In total it was a successful weekend at the Paul Ricard track for MERTEL Motorsports drivers and team. No very bad issues or damages. The changing weather conditions with extremely hot and hard rain were challenging for everyone. We are happy that we were able to extend our lead in the drivers’ standings with now 79 points for Luca Ludwig and Ivan Velasco and looking forward to the races in September at Barcelona after the summer break.