Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy conquer the first victory of the 2023 Sprint Cup season at the end of Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Europe at Brands Hatch lived with bated breath until the last metre.
The Akkodis-ASP crew staged the usual script by exploiting the characteristics of the English track, on which today a beautiful sun shines through the clouds. The first part was up to ‘Lello’, who sprinted from Pole Position and was able to run away, gaining on his rivals before handing over the wheel to his colleague.
The Russian got on the #88 Mercedes-AMG 25′ from the finish for a second part of the race while the others remounted and under the checkered flag he preceded the Audi #40 driven by Tresor Orange 1 by only 0″616 by the frenzied Ricardo Feller, in the place of honor together with Mattia Drudi who was third at the start.
The last step of the podium goes to the BMW M4 of Team WRT driven by Dries Vanthoor/Charles Weerts, capable of recovering several positions after the waltz of the pit stops, where instead the guys from Emil Frey Racing have a lot to complain about, who lost a lots of time with their Ferraris.
The 296 #69 of Albert Costa/Thierry Vermeulen was second and even dropped to seventh with a very tough second part of the race, while the #14 of Giacomo Altoè/Konsta Lappalainen gritted his teeth finishing fifth behind the Audi #11 of Lucas Legeret /Christopher Haase (Comtoyou Racing).
Final comeback also for the Lamborghini #60 driven by Franck Perera/Jordan Pepper, who finished sixth with good overtaking by the Frenchman, while bitterly chewing Christian Engelhart/Adrian De Leener, who find themselves in eighth place due to a problem with the Porsche right on the last lap #54 by Dinami GT Huber Racing when they were in contention for the Top5.
The Audi #12 of Nicolas Baert/Frédéric Vervisch (Comtoyou Racing) obtained ninth place, followed by the #9 of Aurélien Panis/Alberto Di Folco, capable of giving Boutsen VDS the triumph in the Gold Cup class and the absolute top 10.
In this category Audi trio and good defense of the place of honor for Paul Evrard/Simon Gachet with the R8 #26 of Saintéloc, attacked until the end by the #10 of Cesar Gazeau/Adam Eteki (Boutsen VDS) to complete the podium.
With the 11th place overall comes the triumph in the Silver Cup Class for Lorenzo Patrese/Alex Aka on the Audi #99 of Tresor Attempto, who comfortably preceded the Honda NSX #28 of Nova Race in the hands of Jacopo Guidetti/Leonardo Moncini and the #77 Mercedes of Frank Bird/Jordan Love (HRT), who dropped down the order in the second part of the race.
The race of Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin ends with a 15th place. The ‘Doctor’ survived the start maintaining 20th place, however losing one place on lap 15 due to a mistake made in the central sector by going wide; the WRT Team opted to stop immediately and the rider from Pesaro handed over the wheel of the #46 BMW M4 to his Belgian colleague, who, taking advantage of the out laps, was able to climb up a few positions, but finding himself in traffic on a little train that didn’t gave way to reassemble further.
During the whirlwind of stops, the mistake made by the Saintéloc pits deserves mention, as they restarted Patric Niederhauser’s Audi just as Erwin Zanotti’s Honda arrived, hitting the side in full, making both lose a lot of time. For the episode, the R8 #25 in Race 2 will have to move back 5 places on the grid.
#Mercedes #beats #Audi #BMW #Race #Brands #Hatch