Undisputed win for Noel León (Motopark) in Race 1 at the Red Bull Ring

09.09.2023

Noel León was untouchable in Race 1 under the sun at the Red Bull Ring. The Mexican of Motopark, starting from the pole, signed a lights-to-flag win, his fourth of the season. Most of all, he extended his lead in the standings to 36 points, benefitting from the bad day of Bryce Aron, who got stalled at the start and finished sixth.  “It was a smooth race, according to the plans and thanks to a mega car”, commented León, “and I am happy to have gained heavy points.”

Cian Shields (Motopark) took another podium by finishing second ahead of Josh Dufek, one of the debuting drivers of CryptoTower Racing together with local hero Charlie Wurz, fifth behind Francesco Simonazzi (BM Racing).

Jakob Bergmeister (Motopark) took the points of the Rookie Trophy and Paolo Brajnik (NV Racing) the win in the Gold Cup.

THE RACE - At the start, León, who had signed his fourth pole of the season, takes a perfect start, but there is drama in the grid as Wurz, Bergmeister and Aron get a very slow start or even stalled. This allows a fighting Netusil to be third behind León and Shields after a couple of corners, with Dufek and Simonazzi right behind, while also Brajnik is climbing positions.

At the end of lap 1, León is leading ahead of Shields, Dufek, Brajnik, Simonazzi, Wurz, Netusil, Aron and Bergmeister.  Quite logically, Simonazzi, Wurz and Aron are right behind the first three.

Positions stabilize and by the mid-race mark, León’s advantage has grown slightly to 5 seconds, with Shields in P2, chased by Dufek.  Simonazzi is fourth, followed closely by Wurz, while Aron is relatively alone, and Brajnik and Netusil fight ahead of Bergmeister.

In the closing laps, the three top positions do not change and the attention shifts to the battle for fourth, between Simonazzi and Wurz, but the Italian will hold the position until the end.