Maro Engel and Lucas Auer returned to victory with their Mercedes in a rather tight Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Europe held under the beautiful sunshine of Hockenheim.
The Winward team duo returned to being the overall leaders of the Sprint Cup by winning at the wheel of the #48 AMG, resisting the assaults of the #32 Team WRT BMW entrusted to their bitter rivals Weerts/Vanthoor.
The first part of the race was dominated by Ferrari and BMW. Poleman Eliseo Donno initially held off Ben Green’s attacks, with the two 296 GT3s taking the lead, followed at a safe distance by Auer’s Mercedes.
It must be said here, however, that SRO has once again (sic!) modified the Balance of Performance after this morning’s Qualifying, assigning 5kg more to the Maranello cars and taking the same amount away from the BMWs.
A choice that turned out to be rather questionable given the clearly superior pace that the M4s had from the moment the lights went out, quickly and forcefully climbing up the ladder until reaching fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively with Dan Harper (#991 Century Motorsport), Calan Williams (#30 Team WRT) and the aforementioned Charles Weerts.
Regardless of the skill of all three of the aforementioned drivers, at times the speeds of the M4s were embarrassing for their opponents, who could do little to keep up with them, which will lead to discussion about the fact that there are those who persist in playing ‘hide and seek’ in the tests, only to then receive help in view of the race (something that has already been widely seen in the past).
Harper even managed to take third place from Green on lap 15, with the Emil Frey Racing driver having shortly before also had to give way to Auer, who had moved up to second place.
#32 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts
Photo by: SRO
Once the carousel of pit stops had begun, the decisive episode for the fate of the race occurred here: AF Corse were about 10″ slower than their direct rivals when it came to making Eliseo Donno’s pit stop, with Thomas Fleming ready to take over.
The #71 296 even returned fifth behind the #30 BMW of Williams/De Haan with which it was fighting for the lead in the Silver Cup class, leaving the overall lead to the Mercedes of Engel, closely followed by the BMW of Dries Vanthoor, while Konsta Lappalainen watched the two from further away, keeping his #14 Ferrari on the overall podium.
Vanthoor tried several times, even with a couple of contacts, to overtake the yellow AMG in the ‘Mamba’ livery, but Engel never gave up the lead, even when it seemed he was finally knocked out, managing to win by a whisker and take the lead in the championship by half a point together with Auer.
Lappalainen/Green completed the podium with the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, followed by the Donno/Fleming Ferrari, winner in the Silver Class thanks to the British driver’s overtaking of De Haan on lap 28.
#14 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Konsta Lappalainen, Ben Green
Photo by: SRO
After a close battle with a couple of rivals, the #6 Team Engstler Lamborghini was brought to sixth place overall by Engstler/Hofer, deserved winners of the Gold Cup class.
Behind them is the #96 Porsche of Rutronik Racing (another car that benefited from -10kg on the BoP before the race) making a great comeback with Niederhauser/Muller, who also thank a 5″ penalty inflicted on the #69 Ferrari of Altoè/Vermeulen (Emil Frey Racing) to move up one position ahead of the blue and red 296.
The #159 McLaren of Goethe/Gamble (Garage 59) is ninth, the overall top 10 is completed by the #25 Audi of Evrard/Magnus (Saintéloc Racing), also penalised by 5″ while fighting to defend sixth place, but on the Gold Cup podium together with the #88 R8 of Ferrari/Patrese (Tresor Attempto Racing), who crossed the finish line behind them, outwitting the #111 Audi of CSA Racing.
In the Silver Class, third place went to the Audi #26 of Klymenko/Paverud, who recovered from 23rd to 14th position overall.
In the Bronze Cup, Harper’s super start performance helped BMW-Century celebrate its success, also because his colleague Darren Leung slipped to 15th and found himself having to sweat to keep up with other rivals.
Second place went to the #78 Lamborghini of Collard/Mitchell (Barwell Motorsport), with the #93 Ferrari of Cheever/Hui (Sky Tempesta Racing) third.
Despite 10kg less and increased turbo pressure, the Aston Martins are unable to make their mark; the best Comtoyou Racing Vantage is the #7 Drudi/Baert in 17th.
The #90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes, the #159 Garage 59 McLaren (also seen in the Top 10 in the first half of the race) and the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, which spun after contact with an Aston, retired.
#71 AF Corse, Ferrari 296 GT3: Eliseo Donno, Thomas Fleming
Photo by: SRO
Pos
#
Classe
piloti
Team
auto
giri
distacco
1
48
Pro Cup
Lucas Auer, Maro Engel
Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
36
2
32
Pro Cup
Charles Weerts, Dries Vanthoor
Team WRT
BMW M4 GT3
36
1.089
3
14
Pro Cup
Ben Green, Konsta Lappalainen
Emil Frey Racing
Ferrari 296 GT3
36
7.669
4
71
Silver Cup
Eliseo Donno, Thomas Fleming
AF Corse
Ferrari 296 GT3
36
15.333
5
30
Silver Cup
Calan Williams, Sam de Haan
Team WRT
BMW M4 GT3
36
19.902
6
6
Gold Cup
Max Hofer, Luca Engstler
LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler by OneGroup
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2
36
21.576
7
96
Pro Cup
Sven Müller, Patric Niederhauser
Rutronik Racing
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
36
24.092
8
69
Pro Cup
Thierry Vermeulen, Giacomo Altoe
Emil Frey Racing
Ferrari 296 GT3
36
27.856
9
159
Pro Cup
Benjamin Goethe, Tom Gamble
Garage 59
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO
36
28.605
10
25
Gold Cup
Gilles Magnus, Paul Evrard
Sainteloc Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
36
28.760
11
88
Gold Cup
Lorenzo Patrese, Lorenzo Ferrari
Tresor Attempto Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
36
29.259
12
9
Pro Cup
Jules Gounon, Maximilian Götz
Boutsen VDS
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
36
32.526
13
111
Gold Cup
Simon Gachet, Lucas Legeret
CSA Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
36
35.269
14
26
Silver Cup
Marcus Paverud, Ivan Klymenko
Sainteloc Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
36
39.442
15
991
Bronze Cup
Daniel Harper, Darren Leung
Century Motorsport
BMW M4 GT3
36
46.089
16
10
Silver Cup
Cesar Gazeau, Aurelien Panis
Boutsen VDS
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
36
46.566
17
7
Pro Cup
Nicolas Baert, Mattia Drudi
Comtoyou Racing
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO
36
51.676
18
52
Silver Cup
Sean Hudspeth, Jef Machiels
AF Corse
Ferrari 296 GT3
36
56.818
19
78
Bronze Cup
Sandy Mitchell, Rob Collard
Barwell Motorsport
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2
36
56.973
20
93
Bronze Cup
Edward Cheever, Jonathan Hui
SKY – Tempesta Racing
Ferrari 296 GT3
36
1:01.124
21
21
Gold Cup
David Pittard, Matisse Lismont
Comtoyou Racing
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO
36
1:03.230
22
57
Silver Cup
Magnus Gustavsen, Reece Barr
Winward Racing
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
36
1:04.279
23
85
Bronze Cup
Ugo De Wilde, Dmitry Gvazava
Imperiale Racing
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2
36
1:09.563
24
66
Bronze Cup
Dylan Pereira, Andrey Mukovoz
Tresor Attempto Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
36
1:23.507
25
72
Bronze Cup
Patrick Kujala, Gabriel Rindone
Barwell Motorsport
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2
36
1:31.378
26
44
Bronze Cup
Steven Palette, Stephane Denoual
Schumacher CLRT
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
36
1:37.445
27
97
Bronze Cup
Dennis Marschall, Dustin Blattner
Rutronik Racing
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
36
1:38.200
28
11
Gold Cup
James Jakes, Razvan Umbrarescu
Comtoyou Racing
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO
36
1:40.018
29
12
Silver Cup
Dante Rappange, Lorens Lecertua
Comtoyou Racing
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO
36
1:52.998
NC
99
Pro Cup
Alex Aka, Ricardo Feller
Tresor Attempto Racing
Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II
22
-11:55.954
NC
90
Pro Cup
Phil Keen, Ezequiel Perez Companc
Madpanda Motorsport
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
21
-23:52.839
NC
188
Bronze Cup
Louis Prette, Miguel Ramos
Garage 59
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO
20
-27:03.609
