ESET Sprint and ESET Endurance championship results give one clear favourite. Five wins in six races and one-second place, that is how Marcin Jedlinski is doing in short races and in one-hour long endurance races under the banner of ESET MMSR. It is his first season with Audi R8 LMS GT3 in OLIMP Racing team.
The only race he did not win in the GT3 category was the opening race at Hungary, where Richard Chlad jr. had managed to beat him with the same car, Audi R8 LMS GT3. But since then it has been Jedlinki’s dominance in the championship.
“Yeah, it seems to be even better than expected! Our new car Audi R8 LMS GT3 is very different from the Porsche 911 GT3 R I had last year. It’s easier to handle and it encourages me to push it more to the limits,” said Marcin Jedlinski, who has won three out of four sprints so far and has been unbeatable in endurance part of the season.
“This season we are maintaining the cars and do all the services on our own, but we have a support from the best specialists, so we can spend hours by testing and that helps us to get the results. Another important fact is that I’ve decided to stop in the Porsche Cup and fully focus only on GT3 category, so I don’t need to adapt to different driving styles before each race anymore,” he added.
Marcin Jedlinski leads the GT3 category. In the Sprint he has a 13-points advantage over Richard Chlad jr. and another 17 points over Jakub Knoll with BMW M6 GT3. And it is looking even better for him in the Endurance with Jedlinský having 15-points lead over Chlad family and Zejlko Drmič–Robert Lukas duo with Porsche GT3 R.
In a brand-new GT3 Trophy category it is Lubomír Jakubík who is leading the Sprint championship. The Slovak driver races with Ferrari 458 GT.
“I think that GT3 Trophy is a very good category for older GT3 cars like ours, which has done several 12 and 24 hours races already. It has done 17,000 kilometres without an engine change, so we are curious how much more can this grandma take,” said Jakubík, who managed to win the opening race in Hungary and then took several second places behind Tomáš Erdelyi with BMW Z4 GT3. There is only a five-point gap between them and a big battle for the first place is expected.
“We’re going to do everything to stay in the lead. Our car isn’t a pure GT3, but a Ferrari Challenge car rebuilt to GT3, so we have a normal transmission, ABS etc. Our car is built especially for endurance racing, where it’s doing a great job. Sprints don’t suit it very well and we are losing some time there. On the other hand, it can set constant lap times, so we want to fight as long as we can,” said Jakubík.
It is very likely that both GT3 Trophy championships are going to be decided between Jakubík and Erdelyi. While Jakubík leads the Sprints by five points, in the Endurance is it Erdelyi who sits on the first position with 40 points after two wins. Jakubík is currently second with 27 points but third Kálmán Bodis has exactly the same amount of points.
In GTC category is Josef Záruba a current championship leader. A Mičánek Motorsport driver took three wins and one third place in Sprints and enjoys a 13-points advantage over Denisz Waszek, both drive Lamborghini Huracans. But it is much closer in the Endurance championship with Rock Robots driver being behind Záruba–Formánek duo by just three points.
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