Red Bull Ring: Race 1

The BOSS GP Series was the highlight of the first race day at the Red Bull Ring Classics 2023, with Ingo Gerstl and Antonio Pizzonia taking the next wins, and Simone Colombo claiming FORMULA victory and a maiden win for Eisinger-Sewald on home soil.

In front of a huge crowd and in the best spring weather, the world’s fastest single-seater cars put on a great show in Spielberg. In the first half of Saturday’s 20-minute race, Ingo Gerstl in his Toro Rosso F1, Ulf Ehninger in his Benetton F1, and Antonio Pizzonia in his World Series Dallara battled in a tight pack.

Pizzonia quickly passed Ehninger and made his way towards Gerstl. The latter played along and the two experienced drivers swapped positions. Pizzonia led the field after a safety car interruption, but Gerstl shifted up a gear and took the lead once again – winning for the fifth time this year. While Antonio Pizzonia secured the full points in the OPEN class, Ulf Ehninger took second place in the Formula 1 class. Second place in the OPEN class went to Paul O’Connell, who missed out on a much better overall finish after flat spotting a front tire.

The top positions in the FORMULA class were again very closely fought contest. Marco Ghiotto and Fabian Vettel made multiple challenges on leader Simone Colombo. Colombo remained calm and patient while lapping slower cars and won again just ahead of Ghiotto.

Vettel was able to separate the Italian duo in the middle of the race, but after the safety car phase Ghiotto picked up his pace to once again overtake the German. Vettel, however, was extremely satisfied with third place on his debut in a formula car.

Alexander Geier also had a stunning FORMULA debut. The young Austrian managed the second-best lap time in the class with his Dallara GP2, finishing fourth in the classification behind Vettel.