Gabriela Jílková and Cindy Gudet battle for GT4 Europe win, secure pair of podiums at Nürburgring
- MACIEJ JACKIEWICZ
- 26 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Cindy Gudet and Gabriela Jílková claimed their third and fourth Pro-Am podiums of the GT4 European Series season at the Nürburgring. The Matmut Évolution duo finished Race 1 in class P3 after late drama, before securing a strong second place in Race 2, where they led for much of the distance.
Cindy Gudet and Gabriela Jílková claimed their third and fourth Pro-Am podiums of the GT4 European Series season at the Nürburgring. The Matmut Évolution duo finished Race 1 in class P3 after late drama, before securing a strong second place in Race 2, where they led for much of the distance.
The first four rounds of the season had varied success for the only all-female crew on the GT4 European Series grid. Cindy Gudet and Gabriela Jílková, competing in the Pro-Am category, started their second year of collaboration with an inherited class podium at Circuit Paul Ricard. After that, came the round in Zandvoort, where after retiring from race 1 they were able to finish the second one in P4.
The series remained in the Benelux for the third round at Spa-Francorchamps, during which due to a mistake by another driver, they were denied a top 5 finish. However, during the next round of the season at Misano, the Matmut Évolution crew bounced back from misfortunes, and scored a second podium of the season in race 1.
Alongside her GT4 European Series campaign, Cindy Gudet competes in Ligier European Series. In that championship the French driver is sitting fourth in the standings, with four finishes just outside the podium. Gabriela Jílková meanwhile also competes in the Indian Racing League, where she finished P6 during the race at Madras International Circuit. This leaves her crew in eighth in the overall classification.
At Nürburgring, drivers had three sessions before qualifying to test out their cars: Thursday’s paid test, as well as Friday’s free practice and pre-qualifying. In these Gudet and Jílková completed very important laps around the Nürburgring track. The Czech driver was able to finish pre-qualifying in P3 overall – the best position out of all Pro-Am competitors.
As per qualifying system in GT4 European Series, both qualifying sessions are divided into two parts lasting ten minutes. First of them—the “A” part—is intended for the Silver crews, whereas other cars, including the No. 99 of Gudet and Jílková, compete in the “B” part.
Qualifying 1 started at 12:10 pm, but the Q1B part began ten minutes later. Jílková, who drove the car in this session, started it with a 2:12.066 which put her in P24 overall and P4 in Pro-Am. This lap was still a preparatory one, and on the next one she clocked at 2:04.800, which improved her overall position to nineteenth, but was not enough to defend the P4 in Pro-Am. The next lap was better – a 2:04.439, which put the No. 99 car even higher at the grid. The qualifying finished, and Jílková’s time put their Toyota in P17 overall, and P7 in the Pro-Am class.
For the second qualifying session Cindy Gudet was in the car. The first proper lap time in the ten-minute pole position hunt for Gudet came with three minutes to go, when she set a 2:04.699, which allowed her to be first in the class for a while. However, the Pro-Am grid in the second qualifying was very close, and after others improved Gudet was sitting in P14 overall and P3 in Pro-Am, with the class top 3 being separated by less than three hundredths. The session ended that way, which meant that the Toyota of Matmut Évolution would start Race 2 from the seventh row, in class P3.
After a 40-minute delay race 1, of GT4 European Series was underway. However, as soon as it started it was already under a safety car, as on the start finish line Roberto Faria drove into the car of Benjamin Lariche. Despite that Jílková remained in P17 overall and P7 in class. On lap 4 the safety car was in the pit lane and with 48 minutes to go the race recommenced.
After a clean restart Jílková remained in her spot, and on the next lap she went up one position in both overall and class classification, as she overtook Edvin Hellsten of Nova Racing. Battles were happening all around the Czech driver, but she held on to her position. At the front, meanwhile, Erik Evans encountered issues with his Ford Mustang, which caused him to retire. At the same time Callum Davies had to retire in the pits. This allowed Jílková to move up two places in the overall standings, although she remained in class P6.
On lap 11, the pit window opened, and with around 25 minutes to go Jílková handed the car to Cindy Gudet. After all of the cars pitted the French driver found herself in P13 overall and P6 in class. Just as she got in the car, she started making progress, as on lap 17 she overtook her countryman Nicco Ferrarin for P12 overall and P5 in class.
Around that time Gudet got damage on her Toyota car, but it didn’t affect the car’s performance. Ahead of her was Joachim Bölting, who on lap 19 received a warning for track limits. It transformed into a five-second penalty on the next lap, which gave Gudet a great chance of finishing the race in Pro-Am P4. On the same lap, she was overtaken for P13 by Paul Petit, but she remained in class fifth, as the Frenchman competed in Silver class.
A yellow flag appeared on the next lap, as Önder Erdem’s Porsche got stuck in the gravel. This triggered a full course yellow, and later a safety car. The track got cleared rather quickly and this allowed drivers to resume racing for one last lap. The restart was calm and Gudet remained in her position, and just as everything seemed to go quiet until the end, a big crash happened in turn 15.
Paul Petit tried an ambitious move on Alberto Naska, who was third in Pro-Am class, which ended with a collision. That resulted in Naska going off the racing line, and because of that Bölting had nowhere to go and crashed into the Italian’s car. Gudet escaped unscathed out of all this and finished eleventh overall and in P3 in Pro-Am, which was the third podium of the season for the No. 99 car’s crew. After the race the stewards applied a five-second penalty for Petit’s car, which moved the all-female crew up to overall P10.
Race two started on Sunday morning. Cindy Gudet was supposed to start it in P13, but she began the race in P12 after the No. 74 Racing Spirit of Léman car did not appear at the start. The start was very successful for Cindy, because despite losing one position overall she found herself in the lead of the Pro-Am class.
Gudet’s pace was strong, as she set the fastest laps of the Pro-Am class at the beginning of the race. The pack ahead of the No. 99 car was getting closer together, as Robert Consani did not have the pace in his Audi, which made him bunch up the field. Gudet was one second away from P13, when the second driver in Pro-Am class—Aleksandr Vaintrub—dropped to P16, which created a buffer between her and the second car in class.
Cindy Gudet was now surrounded by Silver class battles. On lap 12 she lost a position to Yagiz Gedik, but remained in the lead of Pro-Am. Lap 13 saw Gudet make her way into the pits, and getting replaced in the car by Gabriela Jílková.
As the pit stop cycle ended Jílková was running in P13 overall and P1 in Pro-Am class, but she had to be cautious as behind her Stanislav Safronov—who got the overall pole position in qualifying one—was rapidly approaching her. His chase was stopped by a full course yellow, which transformed into a safety car. It was caused by Josh Rattican’s McLaren getting stuck in the gravel at turn 8.
On lap 21, the action at Nürburgring resumed. Safronov was very close to the back of No. 99 Toyota, but Jílková was able to keep him at bay. The Russian driver lost a position to Pedro Ebrahim of the Silver class, which separated the two leading Pro-Am cars.
Ebrahim tried very hard to overtake the Czech driver as well, which resulted in him pushing the Toyota wide in turn 15, and then making a big dive on Jílková’s car on lap 25. This ambitious move resulted in Jílková losing places to both Ebrahim and more importantly Safronov, who now lead the Pro-Am class. Safronov was able to make another place overall on the last lap. After penalties were applied to other cars, the No. 99 car’s crew of Jílková and Gudet finished the second race in P12 overall, and P2 in Pro-Am, after leading for the majority of the race.
There is now only one round left for the GT4 European Series in 2025, as the drivers will head to the famous Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya track in Spain on 10–12 October. This will be the last chance for the Gudet-Jílková duo to get their first ever class win in the series, which they got very close to at the Nürburgring. They will also try to make the top 3 in the Pro-Am standings, where the Matmut Évolution drivers sit in P4, with a 21 point gap to third.
