We have reached the middle of the 1000 Km of Paul Ricard, the second seasonal event of the Endurance Cup of the GT World Challenge Europe, with the protagonists putting on a show while the sun slowly sets on Le Castellet.
The first 180′ of the race gave various emotions and if at the start it seemed that the Mercedes could have their say, already from the second hour it was the Audi #40 of Tresor Orange 1 who took the lead with the Marschall/Drudi trio /Feller and is now on the run.
Good comeback by the BMWs, in particular the #98 Rowe Racing that pushed its way from the margins of the Top10 to now reach second overall after passing the Mercedes-AMGs of AlManar Racing #777 and Akkodis-ASP #88.
On the other hand, the #32 Team WRT M4 ended prematurely in the second hour due to a bad mistake by Charles Weerts, who closed the door to Daniel Serra’s Ferrari in the duel for the Top5. The 296 #71 was already inside in turn 5 and jumping on the curb he slightly extended the trajectory, but the Belgian swerved and hit the rear of the Red, breaking the front right, and thus raising the white flag.
The #51 and #71 Ferraris of AF Corse-Francorchamps therefore climbed up to sixth and seventh position, battling with the #25 Audi of Saintéloc, while eighth is the Iron Lynx Lamborghini #63 with a thrill running when Andrea Caldarelli he is caught with a lapping in the third sector ending up in a spin and losing contact from 296.
The BMW #998 of Rowe Racing and #46 of Team WRT complete the top 10 a little further away, which Valentino Rossi drove in the first two hours starting from 22nd and handing it over to Augusto Farfus in 13th position with a good second stint.
The #11 Comtoyou Racing Audi was fourth at the start, but suffered a puncture already in the first hour and therefore slipped out of the Top10.
In the Gold Cup, the Audi #21 of Comtoyou Racing has had a good performance at the moment, which has a good margin on the #9 of Boutsen VDS, while the Mercedes #157 of Winward Racing is third, preceding the Lamborghini #19 of Iron Lynx .
On the other hand, the BMW #30 of WRT, the other Mercedes-Winward (#57) and the McLaren #5 of Optimum were involved in the contacts at the start which also caused the entry of the Safety Car for 4 laps.
Here who lost the most was Barwell’s Lamborghini #78 driving the PRO-AM Class, now in the hands of Car Collection’s Porsche #24, ahead of GetSpeed’s Mercedes #2 and ST Racing’s Ferrari 488, with the Porsche #22 of CLRT chasing them.
In the Silver Cup the Audi of Tresor Attempto #99 leads with a safety margin on the Lamborghini #58 of GRT and the Audi #10 of Boutsen.
In the Bronze Cup, the Mercedes #79 of HRT is leading the operations after having passed in front of the Porsche #911 of Pure Rxcing with a contact that also gave it a 5″ penalty at the pit-stop. Third is McLaren # 188 of Optimum.
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