The race ended with Fernando Horta taking a lonely chequered flag at the Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva, his Ferrari 360 Modena crossing the line a comfortable ten seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. Behind him, the tarmac of Estoril cooled, leaving the rest of the GT2 field to dissect a brief, three-lap affair that was decided almost before it began.
Rewinding to the start, Horta launched the #12 Scuderia Leitao House machine into an immediate and uncontested lead. Unbothered by the absence of a recorded starting grid, the Brazilian driver set a blistering pace on lap two, registering a 1:45.006—a time that left the rest of the field looking like they were stuck in peak Radial Leste traffic. Horta's total race time of 5:27.647 was more than enough to secure a back-to-back victory following his recent triumph at Magny-Cours.
Scuderia Leitao House's strategy was managed this weekend by guest tactician Shivan Dragon, who spent the three laps hovering over the pit wall.
Shivan Dragon (Lead Strategist): We had to tap three red mana sources to bypass the summoning sickness on lap one. Once Fernando got the firebreathing bonus on the main straight, the margin was secure. We did not even need to discard a card at cleanup.
In second place, Daniel Herrero (#11 DHRC Ferrari) managed to salvage a podium spot despite his best lap of 1:48.778 being nearly four seconds off the leader's pace. How Herrero secured P2 remains somewhat of a logistical mystery, given that the official timing sheets completely deleted the third-place finisher. Position 3 simply ceased to exist in our reality, leaving Jamie Davies (#88) to inherit fourth place, some eleven seconds adrift of the leader.
Further down the order, a statistical oddity occurred between Guy Smith and Sir Kwietje. Smith, driving the #80 Veloqx Ferrari, and Sir Kwietje, in the #36 Castrol Racing entry, finished fifth and sixth respectively. Remarkably, both drivers clocked identical fastest laps of 1:46.927. The paddock's general consensus is that they simply copied each other's homework. Steve Earle rounded out the six finishers in his #68 Ferrari, 15 seconds behind Horta.
Horta was brief when asked about his dominant performance.
Fernando Horta (Driver): The car was red. It went fast. I am happy we did not hit a pelican this time.
The league now packs up its tire blankets and magical expansion packs, leaving Portugal with more questions than answers about the missing third step of the podium.
Ps. Dave, we found some card sleeves in the garage, are they yours?
