Pinto put in another pair of solid performances in the final round of the championship at Monza, finishing seventh in the sprint race and eighth in the feature, to claim the title in a season where he’s been the most consistent driver on the grid – averaging a fifth-place finish – despite only one race win.
Job again took pole position – his fifth in the ten rounds – earning him the TAG Heuer Pole Award. However, his lead would only last one lap.
Charlie Collins used the slipstream on the main straight to slip past Job at the first Rettifilo chicane. Pinto, who had qualified third, was also falling back though; first Yoann Harth passed, before Dayne Warren jumped both cars to take third.
It got worse for Pinto as his nearest rival and Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Kevin Ellis Jr also passed, with Alejandro Sanchez following a lap later.
Job made a move for the lead on the final lap, but came off second best as he dipped into the gravel exiting Rettifilo. That allowed Warren up into second, and though he attacked Collins in the final stages he couldn’t add to his own win tally.
With only the feature race remaining, Pinto held a 38-point advantage over Job, with Ellis one point further behind. The championship leader started on the front row ahead of both, courtesy of the reversed-grid format.
Sanchez made a better start than Pinto, while Harth’s poor launch allowed Job and Ellis both through. Campbell then speared off at the Della Roggia chicane to move Job up into second, while Pinto’s slow exit blocked Ellis, allowing Collins to take third and rookie driver Jordan Caruso to sneak into the fray.
Caruso and Ellis tangled trying to go through the Lesmos side by side, resulting in Ellis being spat across the track into Cooper Webster and out of the title fight.
A classic Monza slipstream battle ensued between Sanchez, Job, Collins, Pinto, and Warren. Positions changed in each braking zone, and while Job was in the lead for much of it, things tightened up again for a thrilling final lap.
Job took the win – his seventh this season – ahead of Collins, but Pinto’s eighth place was more than enough to claim the title.
Porsche has confirmed that the series will return in 2023, with the top 15 finishers this season guaranteed a place on next year’s grid. Qualification for the remaining spots starts in July.
The Akkodis team scored a double win and a 1-2 in the Fanatec Esports GT Pro series, as its drivers Tommaso Mosca and Raffaele Marciello won their classes in a bad-tempered second round at Circuit Paul Ricard.
It was Silver class driver Mosca who took overall pole position, out-qualifying fellow Silver driver Alex Aka in the Attempto Audi R8. Reigning champion Arthur Rougier was the lead Pro driver, lining up in third for Emil Frey racing.
After the first attempt to start, a power issue caused a red flag, a moment of fortune for Rougier, Kelvin van der Linde, and Ezequiel Perez Companq who’d all had issues at the start.
Aka and Rougier collided at the first corner, with Aka able to use Paul Ricard’s ample run-off to hold his second place while Rougier slipped back to tenth amid some robust driving.
It was all about the Silver drivers in the early stages, as Mosca and Aka traded fastest laps at the front, pulling a three-second gap to the battle for the Pro lead between van der Linde, Rougier, Marciello, and Nicklas Nielsen.
That came to a head when, running three wide, van der Linde hit Nielsen twice, resulting in a crash with Rougier. Incredibly, van der Linde then seemed to deliberately knock Yuki Nemoto into a spin on the Mistral straight.
It was strike three for van der Linde ten minutes later, as he again caused a collision with Rougier. As Rougier slotted up the inside at Signes he forced van der Linde wide, but as the South African rejoined he collided with the Lamborghini in the braking zone for Beausset.
Mosca and Aka were driving away at the front, but Aka chose to pit early in the window. That allowed Marciello to overcut and set up the Akkodis 1-2.
With van der Linde taken out of the running by a deserved stop-go penalty, the race calmed down for the final laps. Mosca took victory by four seconds from his Pro team-mate, with both scoring five points in their respective championships.
Aka finished third on the road but second in class, ahead of his Pro team-mate Juuso Puhakka, taking four points each for Attempto. Rougier took a hard-fought final podium spot in Pro and fifth on the road, scoring three for Emil Frey, while Haupt’s Jannes Fittje did the same in Silver.
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