GTWC | BMW one-two ahead of Ferrari in the crazy 3h of Monza

The OQ by Oman Racing BMW triumphs in a crazy 3h of Monza, the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup which ended in a memorable sprint won by Jens Klingmann, Ahmad Al Harthy and Sam De Haan.

The race was dominated by Ferrari in the first part, then a series of incidents and penalties reshuffled the general order, allowing the M4 #30 prepared by Team WRT to achieve a historic and unexpected success not only overall, but also in the BRONZE CUP Class.

Before the start, the AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors Ferrari #71 smoked: before going to the grid, a problem with the exhaust manifold had been identified and the fault resurfaced on the formation lap, therefore due to the tight timetable it was necessary to carry out new checks in the pits before setting off again at the end of the group and after a few laps.

At the start, poleman Alessio Rovera is lightning fast and takes the first variant alone, while behind Lucas Auer goes to squeeze Mattia Drudi, who had Sheldon Van Der Linde next to him and finds himself in a sandwich that unleashes chaos. The Aston Martin-Comtoyou standard-bearer loses positions and the South African from Team WRT spins, with a series of cars behind that cut completely across the grass.

Auer was later forced to serve a Drive Through penalty in his #48 Mercedes, but the real disaster came at the ‘Roggia’ with a multiple collision that knocked out the #80 Porsche, #10 Mercedes-Boutsen and #74 Ferrari-Kessel, inevitably causing the Safety Car to be deployed.

The restart comes on lap 5 and Rovera immediately starts to push, increasing the gap on the Porsche #22 and BMW #46, followed by the Porsche #96; the first twist comes on lap 18, when Drudi is forced to stop at the end of the straight to reset his Vantage #7, sliding backwards.

At the first pit stop, the #188 McLaren was unable to open its door and had to retire after seeing the enormous damage caused by a contact at the start, losing the lead in the BRONZE CUP class.

Valentino Rossi takes over from Raffaele Marciello and comes out overtaking the Porsche #22 of Kévin Estre, who however takes very little time to overtake the ‘Doctor’, only to then make a bad mistake at the ‘Ascari’ ending up spinning badly in the gravel; restarted, the Frenchman of Schumacher CLRT finally retires during the second hour, characterized by a Full Course Yellow and a repeated Safety Car.

The first neutralization occurs due to the slowing down of the McLaren #158 at the ‘Biassono’ bend and here everyone decides to make another stop; Team WRT even anticipates the driver change and Rossi returns to the pits twice to give the wheel to Maxime Martin, dropping from 2nd to 5th.

The SC exits the scene on lap 49 and Vincent Abril, Rovera’s replacement, pushes again, taking advantage of the backmarkers he has behind him who are hindering his rivals. The Monegasque’s new escape doesn’t last long because at the first chicane Jef Machiels crashes badly into Mateo Llarena’s #19 Lamborghini, sending it into a spin and losing the front bonnet, skidding at the ‘Biassono’ bend and stopping his #52 Ferrari at ‘Lesmo 1’.

#77 Haupt Racing Team, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Michele Beretta, Jusuf Owega, Arjun Maini

Photo by: Paolo Belletti

Another FCY/SC and a new start on lap 55, but during these laps new pit stops take place which will have a specific weight in the finishing order, because those who have chosen to come back find themselves with the advantage of only having to make a quick refuelling, losing very little time and still keeping their rivals behind.

And in a breathtaking finale, it was the #30 BMW that overtook the #32 Team WRT M4 driven by Weers/Vanthoor/Van Der Linde at the first chicane, grappling with the charging Ferrari of Pier Guidi/Abril/Rovera. During the Piedmontese driver’s stint, the #51 296 continued to fly and the boy from Tortona truly deserved thunderous applause with sensational overtaking and record laps to recover ground, but in the last attempt brought to Vanthoor there was a contact that pushed the red car to cut curve 1-2, so Pier Guidi was forced to give way to the Belgian again, settling for a podium that nevertheless relaunches the AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors crew in the race for the title.

Fourth was the #99 Audi of Feller/Aka/Haase (Tresor Attempto) with the #46 BMW of Rossi/Martin/Marciello (WRT) behind and the #9 Mercedes of Gotz/Camara/Gounon (Boutsen VDS), the best of the AMG GT3s given that towards the end the #48 ‘Mamba’ of Engel/Auer/Morad had to pit for a stop, dropping from 6th to 16th place.

The BMW celebrations continued with the seventh place overall for the #991 of Century Motorsport (Dennis/Leung/Sowery) which completed the one-two in the BRONZE Class, where third place went to the #66 Audi of Mukovoz/Hofer (Tresor Attempto), also among those to return at the end, dropping to 11th.

#57 Winward Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Daan Arrow, Tanart Sathienthirakul, Colin Caresani

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati ​​| AG Photo

At Porsche, the best of the 911s was the #911 of Pure Rxcing (Bachler/Sturm/Malykhin) in eighth place, followed by the #57 Mercedes of Caresani/Arrow/Sathienthirakul (Winward Racing), first in the SILVER CUP class, while the overall top 10 was completed by the #163 Lamborghini of Mapelli/Perera/Pepper (GRT).

Also on the podium in the SILVER CUP were the Aston Martins of Comtoyou Racing #12 and Walkenhorst Motorsport #35 driven by Pauwels/Baert/Øgaard and Hanafin/Robin/Leroux.

Finally, the GOLD CUP category goes to the Mercedes #77 of HRT (Beretta/Owega/Maini) which got the better of the Audi #25 of Saintéloc (Pla/Evrard/Magnus) and the Aston #21 of Comtoyou Racing driven by Lismont/Van Uitert/Clark.