Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Race 5 Recap

Edoardo Leo collects first career Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series win at Zandvoort

Thursday marked the halfway point of the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series season, as 25 of the best Dallara iR-01 pro drivers took on another new challenge in the form of Circuit Zandvoort on October 12. Not only is the venue new to the schedule, but Zandvoort is also one of the newest scans on the platform after re-releasing the updated circuit in the 2023 Season 4 build.

Once again, a new winner emerged for the series, a fourth different winner in five races, year to date. Italian competitor Edoardo Leo was able to take himself and his VRS team to victory lane for the first time, improving on his previous best finish of fourth last month at Jerez. In the closing laps, Leo moved around last week's winner and the current points leader, Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek to take the lead for the final time. It's Leo's first career victory in five starts as he becomes the second rookie of the series to win this season, alongside Veloce VEXT's Matt Emery, who was the winner at Jerez.

Starting from sixth place, outside of Row 3, Leo is the only Grand Prix winner to start that far back so far this year. Fellow Italian competitor, Apex Racing Team's Michele Costantini, was on the pole position alongside the only multi-time winner so far this year, the Frenchman Florian Lebigre. Emery, looking for his second win of the year, was starting in third, but an issue at the start had him pull off before the first corner, Tarzanbocht. Costantini had managed to take control, but Lebigre was on his tail, looking to pounce early.

The potential move came on Lap 3, into Tarzanbocht, as Lebigre looked to the outside of Costantini. Exiting the corner, the two connected and crashed, both of their days done way too early. Lemanek inherited the lead with Leo moving into second and the other Apex Racing Team machine, Ben Fuller, taking control of third. After saving early on, Fuller began to make the most of his new situation, moving around Leo on Lap 6 and into the lead around Lemanek on Lap 7. Content to ride behind and save, the trio ran nose-to-tail in that order until the pit cycle came into play.

There were two strategies again in play, but unlike last week's event at Silverstone, one was clearly more profitable than the other, most likely due to who was on which strategy. The contenders were all on the Medium compound to start, with a swap to the Hard compound in the cards before halfway in the 35-lap event. The first to bite was Lemanek from the second position, looking to make the undercut work again as it did last week, pitting in at Lap 13. Fuller waited two laps to respond, pitting in on Lap 15, while Leo went one lap further, coming in for his stop on Lap 16.

About a half-dozen cars that all started in the bottom half of the field, including SDK Gaming's Manel Cubo Torres and Veloce VEXT's Tamas Simon, were on the Hard-to-Medium strategy, and even if they weren't going to be in it to win it with their decision, their overcut would still prove to play a role in the eventual outcome for the win.

Lemanek managed to make it out of the pits ahead of Leo and well ahead of Fuller, who likely needed an extra second or two for more fuel after leading the race. The trio all managed to catch the pack of cars on the alternate strategy before they were due to come into pit, which made things extremely tense as the leaders fought through the slower traffic. Lemanek and Leo managed to get through with little to no concern, but Fuller was caught up in a fender-less fender bender with Simon, resulting in an extra pit stop to replace a damaged front wing, taking him out of contention.

Leo had three lap fresher tires and used it to his advantage. Lemanek had a stout defense, but as the two finished weaving through the traffic, Leo was on full attack with the draft and better tires. With seven laps to go, Leo made the move for the lead down the frontstretch. Lemanek opted not to contest it. Leo pulled out to a lead over four seconds en route to his first win.

Lemanek's decision to step aside and settle for second meant a positive points day as he extends his lead to eight points over Arnage Competition's David Toth, who finished in third. The other VRS driver, Marcos Núñez, finished in fifth behind Wave Italy Racing Team's Pablo Espes. Núñez falls to third in the standings, now 12 points behind Lemanek. BS+ Competition's Jarl Teien maintains fourth after an eighth place finish and Leo, who wasn't even in the Top 10 in the standings coming into the day, moves up to round out the Top 5.

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series Round 5 results at Circuit Zandvoort were as follows:

Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series points through Round 5 are as follows:

1. Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek, 75
2. David Toth, 67
3. Marcos Núñez, 63
4. Jarl Teien, 51
5. Edoardo Leo, 49
6. Florian Lebigre, 40
7. Gaël Valero, 39
8. Ben Fuller, 39
9. Matt Emery, 37
10. Michele Costantini, 36

With half of the 2023 season still to go, the next stop for the Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series will be the first and only street course on the schedule, the Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle, the second of three races on the calendar in the US. Coverage starts on Thursday, October 19, at 19:00 GMT (3PM ET) and will stream live across all of the iRacing social media channels.

For more information on the Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series, visit www.iracing.com/irgp. For more information on Turn Racing, visit www.turnracing.com. For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com.