Libor Milota became the sixth ESET GT3 champion in the ten-year history of the ESET Cup. The Czech driver replaced the Pole Marcin Jedlinski on the throne, who completed only two events this year.
Libor Milota put his red and white Mercedes AMG GT3 on pole position right at the start of the season at the Hungaroring. It was raining in qualifying and Milota left the competition far behind. He was the absolute fastest and also easily beat the Ligier LMP2 prototype. The race went on in a similar spirit and the members of the GT2 Motorsport team celebrated their first victory of the year. However, Milota was absent from other races at the Hungaroring. He made a mistake that even the best F1 drivers have not avoided in the past. He crashed on the way to the starting grid.
The second race in Hungary won the defending champion Jedlinski in Mercedes AMG GT3 and then the ESET Cup moved to Austria for the second round. Milota finished twice on the podium, but never on the top one. The Austrian Ernst Kirchmayr secured top position for the whole weekend. Sixty-year-old Kirchmayr already started in Hungary with the Ferrari Challenge, but on home soil he sat behind the wheel of a Ferrari 488 GT3 and literally blew away his opponents.
Just as the Austrian dominated in Austria, Poles dominated the third round in Poland. Robin Rogalski in Seyffarth Motorsport’s Audi R8 GT3 EVO2 could have won all the races, but he was penalized in the first sprint for overtaking under yellow flags. Therefore, Jedlinski became the winner. Rogalski secured race win in the second sprint.
Gregor Zsigo from Racing Trevor team started from pole position at Grobnik. The Croatian track obviously suited him and his BMW M4 GT3, but Milota soon took the lead after short battle. He won for the first time since Hungary. Zsigo finished second and it was his fifth podium finish of the season. Thanks to that, he was still within points reach of the leading Milota.
But Milota continued his winning streak in the following rounds. He won all the sprints at the Slovakia Ring and Brno and was on his way to his first title in the ESET Cup. He was up against strong competition in the whole season. Either in the form of newer cars then his Mercedes or really fast drivers. However, the former motorcycle racer managed to keep his cool and regularly stayed at the front positions. Gregor Zsigo was also always there, prepared to take advantage of any mistake from his opponent, but it never came. Milota won six of the eleven sprint races. Both Jedlinski and Kirchmayr triumphed twice and Rogalski once. For the rest of the drivers in the field remained only the podium positions. Piotr Wira with a Mercedes AMG GT3 from the Good-Speed Racing Team finished four times on the podium, Stanislaw Jedlinski with a Ferrari 488 GT3 stood up the three times and Petr Kačírek with an Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 from the Duck Racing Team enjoyed the podium on two occasions. István Bóta with Mercedes AMG GT3 won the podium at the Slovakia Ring.