MCRO GT S4 R5 Review

GT returned after a weekend off thanks to the CDT LeMans. R5 was featured on the longest track to ever be used in GT. This sure did hold some surprises and it was a far from boring race with game changing events happening every now and then.

Quali

This race was supposed to feature MCRO's first 3 driver quali, however none of the teams showed up to the race with 3 drivers. That meant it was a not so special quali. The McLarens of Agg, Sot and Blaze had gotten away well along with Lexi, however thanks to the acceleration of the McLaren and some clever tricks, by the time they got to T1 the 3 McLarens were ahead of the field by a small margin. This was also Cebulioner's debut, however he was not faring well.

By the time they exited the city, Sot was in the lead followed by Agg who wasn't far behind who was then followed by Blaze. The rest of the grid tagged along without much gap, however Dino decided to take a detour. By the end of lap 1 Sot had a small gap over Agg who in turn had a small gap over Syrz who managed to climb his way up into P3 and was chasing Agg for P2, however midway through lap 2 Agg disconnected and Blaze overtook Syrz which meant he jumped 2 positions in one go. Quali ended with Sot on pole, Blaze P2 and Syrz in P3.

Race

Syrz had to leave prior to the race which left P3 on the grid empty. Agg rejoined and Avith was also here. Egg decided to do a one off and race in place of Syrz.

It was lights out and Sot got away well and that was that, he went on to lead every single lap of the race from start to finish. A Grand Slam. But the battle for P2 and below was not as monotonous as the one for the lead. Agg and Blaze were constantly at a tangle with each other. Occasionally Avith, Lio or even Lexi would show up and drop back again. Every driver apart from the BMW GT drivers was on the podium at some point in the race. The battle for P2 was ever so intense with Avith, Syrz and Blaze making mistakes and comebacks. This went on even after the pit window closed, around lap 13 Agg spun and Avith put himself up into P2, Agg still managed to hang close to Avith and Blaze but was now running in P4. He managed to pass Blaze and was now chasing Avith, to his delight Avith crashed somewhere near lap 15 or 16 and lost position, he then had to make a comeback and finished P5 almost passing Lexi over the line.

Lio came home in 6th followed by Storage who had a very poor first half of the race, but managed to pick up his pace and pass his teammate on the closing stages. His teammate, Dino finished P7. Unfortunately Cebulioner retired from the race after crashing, not an ideal debut and Egg DNF-ed as he had other commitments to attend to.

Racing lower class cars on hypercar tracks never fails to give us a thrilling race. Battle for P2 almost from start to finish, Agg's comeback from last to P2, Avith's comeback from last to P2 which he didn't hold for long and Sot's grand slam.

With that, McLaren GT won the GT Constructor's title. Congratulations to them! The driver's title is still to be decided with Sot in P1 3 points ahead of Agg in P2 with Obli in P3 over 20 points behind P2.

Will we see more interesting races in the future? Lets hope!