It was the second knockout race that held all the intrigue though, as neither Luke Bennett (Redline) nor Maximilian Benecke (Mouz) – both round winners in ESL R1 and in this season’s top ten – would progress from this race. Bennett fell foul of a three-wide squeeze into Rettifilo on lap one, while Benecke ended up shouldered off at the Lesmos as the fight for the lead erupted three laps from home. Daire McCormack (Williams) would run out winner here, putting his own woes from last week behind him. Joshua Rogers (Coanda) came out victorious in his knockout race, just pipping champion and polesitter Marcell Csincsik (R8G) to the flag, while Jeffrey Rietveld (Redline) did the same in the final race after Mack Bakkum (Coanda) had claimed pole position.
With all four drivers into the semi-finals, Porsche Coanda would have been confident of good points. Team leader Rogers though was out of sorts in qualifying, placing only seventh – while team-mate Dayne Warren stuck his 911 on pole position with the fastest lap of the event. Rogers was then caught up in an early kerfuffle which put an end to his top-six chances, but Warren was able to retain second after another masterclass from McCormack to take the win. Another shock exit came through Cinscsik, who was confusingly penalised for impeding, allowing Lasse Sorensen (Furia) to progress.
Caique Oliveira (Furia) was another surprise, taking pole position in the second semi-final ahead of Job, but it took just one lap for Job to take a lead he’d hold to the finish. Nikodem Wisniewski (Williams) was the biggest casualty here, exiting after a drive-through penalty for a jump start. A very tight final qualifying session saw Warren taking pole position again, just ahead of Toman, with firm favourite Job only seventh. Once again though, this wasn’t a harbinger of victory for Warren as Toman swept past on lap three. In fact Warren was slowly slipping backwards as Jamie Fluke (ART) made the same move two laps later, and McCormack did the very same thing a lap further on.
That would decide the podium, with Toman becoming the second R8G driver to win a round – only the second team to achieve a driver double – and Fluke recording his best round to date. With his nearest rivals not making the final, Job extends his lead to 24 points, over new second-place driver Toman, while McCormack jumps three places to third. Williams has taken the smallest bite out of R8G’s lead, which now stands at 201 points.
ESL R1 Fall Season Round 5 Results:
1 – Jiri Toman (R8G) - Audi R8 GT3 Evo – 9 laps
2 – Jamie Fluke (ART) - Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo - +0.406s
3 – Daire McCormack (Williams) - Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo - +2.074s