Aaron Debattista turned pole position into his second GT3 win of the Malta National Sim Racing Championships 2026 in as many rounds, but only after Dean Vella led most of the 30-minute race at Imola.
Vella passed Debattista into Tamburello on the opening lap and kept the championship leader behind until a small error at the same chicane opened the door with seven laps remaining. Debattista moved back ahead and finished 1.226 seconds clear, with Jake Sammut third and only 2.303 seconds covering the podium.
The result repeated the entire top five from the season opener at Spa. Debattista now leads the championship on 60 points, eight ahead of Vella and 16 ahead of Sammut after two of five rounds.
Debattista takes pole after early qualifying pressure
Debattista began qualifying without a valid lap while Vella set the early pace. Mikhail Mercieca also held a provisional top-three place before the championship leader put together a 1:42.78 lap late in the session.
That effort placed Debattista on pole, with Vella alongside him and Sammut third. Ilan Dimech Ghirxi qualified fourth, four hundredths of a second ahead of Mercieca, while Sheldon Scott Muscat beat Brandon Bonello to sixth by just 0.005 seconds.
The first seven qualifiers were separated by less than a second. At a circuit where the kerbs can invalidate a lap or unsettle the BMW M4 GT3 EVO, the grid left little room for error.
Vella leads from the opening lap
Vella made the better start and went down the inside of Debattista at Tamburello. He completed lap one eight tenths of a second ahead after bringing the tyres up to temperature quicker than the cars around him.
The order changed sharply at the back. Contact in the group approaching Tosa left Bonello and Krisztian Kavai facing the wrong way. Race control reviewed the sequence and took no further action, although Jayden Ellul later received a warning for separate contact with Muscat at the start.
Debattista reduced Vella’s lead to half a second by the end of lap two. From there, the front pair ran almost continuously in the 1:42 and low 1:43 range, faster than the rest of the field and close enough for the tow along Imola’s pit straight to keep the contest open.
Sammut settled into third. Behind him, Dimech Ghirxi defended fourth from Mercieca through the first half of the race, repeatedly covering the inside line at Tamburello.
One mistake decides the lead
Vella held Debattista behind until he ran wide at the exit of Tamburello with seven laps to go. The BMW reached the marbles off the racing line, costing enough momentum for Debattista to pass before Villeneuve.
“I had to wait for the mistake,” Debattista said after the race. Once ahead, he focused on breaking the tow and opened the gap beyond one second.
Sammut briefly closed to within slipstream range of Vella late in the race, but the leading pair responded. Debattista set the fastest official lap at 1:42.827, only 0.039 seconds quicker than Sammut and 0.126 seconds ahead of the slowest best lap among the top three.
Mercieca passed Dimech Ghirxi for fourth during the closing third of the race. Dimech Ghirxi remained within half a second for several laps before a slide at Rivazza broke the fight and left Mercieca clear.
Ellul gained two positions from eighth to finish sixth, the largest improvement in the field. Muscat followed in seventh, while Bonello recovered from his first-lap spin to finish eighth. Kavai lost a lap after spending about 90 seconds in the pits for repairs.
Two wins give Debattista an eight-point lead
Debattista, Vella, Sammut, Mercieca and Dimech Ghirxi have finished in the same order at both GT3 rounds. That consistency has produced evenly spaced gaps at the top of the standings: eight points from first to second, another eight to third, then six points between each of the next three positions.
Ellul made the largest championship gain at Imola. His sixth-place finish moved him from ninth to seventh on 22 points.
Round three takes the field to the Red Bull Ring on Sept. 19, when all 10 drivers switch from the BMW to the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. Long straights and heavy braking zones will make the tow harder to break than it was at Imola. After identical top fives at Spa and Imola, that change is the next chance for Debattista’s rivals to interrupt his perfect start.
