The Saintéloc Junior Team gives Audi Sport the success in the 3h of Hockenheim, the penultimate round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS – Endurance Cup.
Wonderful race that started immediately with a thrill for the touch between Arthur Rougier’s Lamborghini # 19 and Rob Bell’s McLaren # 38 which sent the latter ruinously against the guard-rail at the exit of hairpin 6. The Jota driver is luckily he came out unscathed from the wreck, but the Safety Car was kept on track for 30 ‘in order to allow for the repair of the barriers.
At the restart, the # 32 Audi of Team WRT – which had conquered the Pole Position – held the record thanks to the excellent Charles Weerts, while behind him Alessio Rovera was immediately attacked by those chasing, losing a couple of positions.
The Varese rider from Iron Lynx gritted his teeth, but the Ferrari disaster materialized at the curve leading into the ‘Motodrome’. James Calado, in the 488 # 51, tried the attack inside the Mercedes of Maro Engel going on the dirt, Rovera who was in front of them and on the outside he set the curve closing the line.
The two Ferrari drivers could not see each other due to GetSpeed’s AMG # 2 between them and with Calado going long forcing the braking, contact was inevitable. Rovera KO with # 71, his British colleague continued slipping behind the lines (then Molina / Nielsen back off again for a puncture).
Shortly thereafter, WRT hands in the hair at home due to a gearbox problem that caused the leader Weerts to collapse badly; the pit stop was useless to try to solve the problem and very sad retirement for the # 32 after an hour of racing.
Out of Weerts / Vanthoor / Van Der Linde, the record went to the Audi # 12 of the Tresor by Car Collection in the hands of Haase / Drudi / Ghiotto, who for the whole second hour held the top by controlling the situation.
Emerging from a stupendous fight for the place of honor, the Audi # 25 of Mies / Niederhauser / Legeret made up for it under the white-red R8, passed on the occasion of the last stop by the Saintéloc crew.
Throughout the final hour the two cars from Ingolstadt continued arm in arm, joined by the Audi # 66 branded Attempto Racing of Winkelhock / Schramm / Marschall.
A little more than 30 ‘from the end, a Safety Car which had been repaired for the release of Audi # 11 by Hugo Valente (Tresor by Car Collection) gathered everyone and at the restart (29’20 “on the clock) there were sparks to gain positions , with the ranking that came out further changed.
Who took the opportunity to stretch it was precisely Niederhauser, who went to win comfortably in front of the Audi of Attempto, who with 12 ‘to face took over and overtaken that of Tresor, ran into a failure that slowed it down and sent it undeservedly to the rear. .
Great comeback from the 15th box of the grid also for Bachler / Picariello / Cairoli in the Porsche # 54 of Dinamic Motorsport, authors of a podium to peel their hands and able to beat the Mercedes-AMG of GetSpeed Performance # 2 driven by Stolz / Engel / Schothorst.
Great bitterness instead for that of Akkodis ASP (# 88 Marciello / Juncadella / Gounon), which stopped 20 ‘from the end due to a technical problem and left everything unchanged as regards the drivers’ classification, in the AMG-Ferrari duel.
The Audi # 46 shared by Valentino Rossi, Frédéric Vervisch and Nico Müller ends in the Top5: the departure of the ‘Doctor’ was disastrous, with a mistake made at the ‘Parabolika’ (candidly admitted by the Pesaro rider) which caused him to collapse at 20 Th place.
Once he gave the wheel to Vervisch anticipating the stop, the Belgian climbed up with determination to even 4th place, but then in the following stop the 5 “discounted for a contact that took place in Valentino’s stint made Müller lose something, who in any case brings the R8 of the WRT Team to the finish line in a position that could have been much better given the pace of the two Audi factory drivers.
# 46 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS evo II GT3: Frederic Vervisch, Nico Muller, Valentino Rossi
Photo by: Camilss
Up to a quarter of an hour from the end, the yellow-black Audi was chased by the McLaren # 111 of JP Motorsport (Klien / Abril / Lind), but sadly returned to the pits due to a mechanical problem.
The Lamborghini Huracans of Emil Frey Racing climb to sixth and seventh place overall. The # 63 of Bortolotti / Aitken / Costa recriminates for the time lost at the beginning after the pit stop, still climbing with tenacity, while the # 14 of Lappalainen / Wishofer / White cuts a great figure by winning the Silver Cup after having also fought for the Top3 in the middle phase of the race.
Silver place of honor that ends at Audi # 99 of Attempto Racing (Aka / Zug / Schöll), rising from 21st to 8th place overall, pulling behind the BMW M4 # 50 of Hesse / Verhagen / Harper (Rowe Racing) and the Audi # 30 of Team WRT (Simmenauer / Goethe / Neubauer), third and mathematically Silver Champion, as well as completing the Top 10.
In the Gold Cup Class the primacy was firmly in the hands of the Porsche # 911 of Herberth Motorsport (Bohn / A.Renauer / R.Renauer) which had already taken the Pole Position. The 911 crew found themselves fourth for a puncture on the last lap and the success was inherited by the McLaren # 7 of Millroy / Iribe / Schandorff (Inception Racing).
The second place is of the Mercedes # 5 of Team HRT (Scholze / Maini / Haupt), which in the final mockery the Ferrari # 21 of AF Corse with Balzan / Delacour / Sbirrazzuoli on top. The 488 # 83 of the Iron Dames Gatting / Bovy / Frey is sixth in the category.
Ferrari consoles itself with the victory in PRO-AM obtained in comeback from the 488 # 52 of AF Corse of the Bertolini / Costantini / Machiels trio; the standard bearers of Maranello recovered positions and took the first during the second hour, when a problem slowed the McLaren # 188 of Garage 59 (West / Ramos / Chaves) which until then had driven without worries.
Place of honor for the # 20 Mercedes of SPS Automotive Performance driven by Loggie / Pierburg / Baumann, who until the last tried to parade the success from the Red, the podium completed by the aforementioned 720S, sent back to the track with a lap of delay by the other rivals.
#GTWC #Hockenheim #AudiSaintéloc #party #Ferrari #RossiTop5