16/11/2020
Lorandi takes P15 in GT World
Endurance 6 Hours of Le Castellet finale
The 6 Hours of Le Castellet, final round of the GT World Challenge Endurance, turned out to be a very tough race. Alessio Lorandi, Yelmer Buurman and Fabian Schiller, who shared the cockpit of the GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3, started from P15 (out of 40 cars) and took the checkered flag after six hours to give Adam Osieka and his team the same finishing position. The first two-hour stint was done by Buurman, who quickly climbed up to P10. After several laps though, race control handed him a drive-through penalty for a jump start.
Lorandi got into the car for the next two hours and, at the moment of refuelling, something did not work properly, so a further penalty was assessed, and this time, it was a stop and go. Lorandi, who was 16th, thus dropped back to the 23rd position. He then put up a powerful comeback up to the 17th place before leaving the red and black Mercedes to Schiller for the final two hours.
The race started at 11.45 and ended at 17.45 with the last hour at night. Schiller recovered well and crossed the finish line in P15 with the regret for time lost due to the two penalties (which was calculated in 1.30m) that jeopardized a probable top-10 finish.
The Paul Ricard event wrapped up Alessio's first season in international GT Endurance, certainly, a positive one considering the seventh place at the Nurburgring (6 Hours), plus the good runs delivered today and in the Imola 3-hour opener, when Schiller was punted out of a fifth place by another driver in the final hour and forced to retire.
