The only driver on the roster with a victory from the inaugural 2021 season, Apex Racing Team’s Michele Costantini entered the 2023 Grand Prix Turn Racing iRacing Series as a championship favorite. The 2021 Qualifying Series champion’s sophomore season in the top-level Dallara iR-01 series has been anything but championship-worthy, but on Thursday—a bright spot on a bleak year—the Italian scored his second career victory and first in 2023 after a convincing performance in Austria.
In a more tame race than this season has often provided, Costantini was finally able to put a full event together. There have been multiple instances this season where Costantini and his teammate Ben Fuller have been the class of the field, but it hadn’t resulted in a victory until the eighth race of the season, a return trip to the Red Bull Ring.
Up front, Janney’s strategy for soft compound tires to grab the pole went better than the previous week at Fuji, as he kept in the lead pack with Fenollosa, Wave Italy Racing Team’s Pablo Espes, and Costantini before peeling off to pit at Lap 14. The three other leaders, along with the majority of the field, all opted for medium compound tires to qualify and start the race with. As series rules mandate a compound change during the event, the question remained whether that compound would be the white-walled hard tires or the red-walled softs.
At Lap 19, just before halfway, those strategies began to take shape. Fenollosa pitted from the lead, taking hards. Espes followed a lap later, also putting on the hards and leapfrogging to the lead of the cycle. Costantini stayed out on his older mediums and was still faster than his two rivals on fresh hard tires, allowing him to build a gap before he pit on Lap 25. With the cycle complete at the conclusion of Lap 26, Costantini had a sizable lead of over three seconds back to Fenollosa.
Before too long, it became evident that the hard compound tires were not the right call as Fenollosa and Espes were swallowed up by the next group. Espes in particular saw his decision go from bad to worse as he was collected in an incident with Fuller on Lap 29. The contact took Fuller out and dropped Espes down to 13th.
Costantini was able to bring it home for the win with VRS driver Edoardo Leo scoring second and Drago Racing’s Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek rounding out the podium with a bonus point for the fastest lap on Lap 33.
Leo managed the runner-up after starting in ninth while Lemanek had to race up from the 14th starting position, turning what had the potential to be a bland day into a championship effort and extending his points lead for the fifth straight week.
The gap for Lemanek sits at 27 points, more than anyone can earn in a single race, over Arnage Competition’s David Toth, who finished eighth, and 31 points over BS+ Competition’s Jarl Teien, who came home in seventh. VRS driver Marcos Núñez, fourth in the championship, 43 points behind Lemanek, is the last driver mathematically eligible to still win the championship. Costantini, who jumps up to fifth, is 54 points behind Lemanek, a gap that cannot be overcome barring any penalties.
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