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
Post | # | Class | pilots | Team | car | turns | detachment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 Racing | 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 Attempt 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 | César 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 Racing | 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 – Tempest 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 | Imperial Racing | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 36 | 1:09.563 |
24 | 66 | Bronze Cup | Dylan Pereira, Andrey Mukovoz | Tresor Attempt 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 Attempt 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 |
#GTWC #Hockenheim #Race #sprint #EngelAuers #Mercedes