Emil Frey Racing’s Ferrari triumphs in Race 2 of the GT World Challenge Europe thanks to Konsta Lappalainen and Ben Green who secure their first win of the season in the 2024 Sprint Cup.
It was a two-faced race, with several changes and twists (as well as forbidden ones) between the first half and the second after the carousel of pit stops.
At the start, poleman Luca Engstler was perfect in keeping behind the #99 Audi of Ricardo Feller and the #14 296 GT3 of Lappalainen, who was in turn chased by the #32 Team WRT BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor, while Mattia Drudi had his work cut out for him in his #7 Aston Martin to hold off the #48 Mercedes of Maro Engel.
The first incident occurred on lap two when Ivan Klymenko hit the blameless Tom Gamble in turn 2, sending the Garage 59 McLaren #159 into a spin; the Saintéloc Racing driver was therefore given a Drive-Through, which was later served by his colleague Marcus Paverud.
Klymenko himself was the protagonist shortly after in a skirmish with Giacomo Altoè, who after having passed him again on turn 2 ended up wide in the grass, losing ground, when the Emil Frey Racing driver had managed to bring his #69 Ferrari back from 15th to 8th place.
The first surprise came on lap 8 with the failure of the left front wheel on Feller’s Audi, just after passing the pit straight, depriving the Tresor Attempto Racing driver of a potential podium.
Four laps later, Full Course Yellow and Safety Car declared by Race Direction to recover the #11 Aston Martin of Comtoyou Racing, which went off in a disastrous turn 1, but also saw Razvan Umbrarescu unharmed.
#32 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts
Photo by: SRO
The restart took place on lap 14, just when the carousel of pit stops began and after that half of the grid started the pit lane for stops.
Here a problem with the right front wheel nut gave Team Engstler a spectacular shock and when Max Hofer returned to the track with the #6 Lamborghini, his rivals had already long since passed.
In the chaos, AF Corse also lost the lead in the Silver Class after Thomas Fleming remained in the Top 10 with the #71 Ferrari and Eliseo Donno dropped back significantly.
Having inherited the wheel from Lappalainen, Green then found himself in the lead with a 5″ margin over the #32 BMW of Vanthoor/Weerts, easily controlling the situation until the chequered flag.
For the Team WRT duo, however, a very precious second place was achieved in a tight space, as the #48 Mercedes of Engel/Auer pressed them until the end; in this way, the Winward Racing duo are once again overtaken in the championship standings by their rivals BMW.
![#48 Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Lucas Auer, Maro Engel](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/24vryXA6/s1000/48-winward-racing-team-mann-fi.jpg)
#48 Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Lucas Auer, Maro Engel
Photo by: SRO
A nice climb up to fourth place for the #9 Mercedes of Goetz/Gounon (Boutsen VDS), followed by the equally lively and recovering #30 BMW of De Haan/Williams, who gave Team WRT the joy of the Silver Cup.
Drudi/Baert instead finished sixth in the #7 Aston Martin of Comtoyou Racing, paying a 5″ final penalty for not respecting Track-Limits (a penalty that affected several cars at the end of the race).
There was also a great recovery for the two Lorenzos of Tresor Attempto Racing, Patrese/Ferrari, who were able to not only bring their #88 Audi to seventh overall, but also to victory in the Gold Class despite a small puncture suffered shortly before the break, beating the #159 McLaren of Goethe/Gamble (Garage 59) and the #111 Audi of CSA Racing in the hands of Gachet/Legeret, second in the Gold class.
Also finishing in the overall Top 10 was the #90 Mercedes of Keen/Pérez Companc (Madpanda Motorsport), which got the better of a number of fierce rivals in the fierce battles seen in the midfield in the closing laps.
Here, the #6 Lamborghini of Hofer/Engstler took the third step of the Gold podium with great regret for what happened during the break, finishing thirteenth overall, just behind the #10 Mercedes of Gazeau/Panis (Boutsen VDS), second in Silver.
The podium in this last category finally goes to the Ferrari #52 of Hudspeth/Machiels (AF Corse), who outwitted their colleagues Donno/Fleming, penalised 5″ for TL at the finish line.
As for the Bronze Cup, Darren Leung kept the #991 Century Motorsport BMW in the lead in the early part of the race, which Dan Harper then easily drove to victory, distancing his rivals and taking home 11th place overall.
Behind the red M4 are the #78 Lamborghini of Mitchell/Collard (Barwell Motorsport) and the #93 Ferrari of Hui/Cheever (Sky Tempesta Racing) completing the class trio.
Post | # | Class | pilots | Team | car | turns | detachment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 14 | Pro Cup | Ben Green, Konsta Lappalainen | Emil Frey Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 35 | |
2 | 32 | Pro Cup | Charles Weerts, Dries Vanthoor | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | 35 | 6.333 |
3 | 48 | Pro Cup | Lucas Auer, Maro Engel | Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 35 | 6.908 |
4 | 9 | Pro Cup | Jules Gounon, Maximilian Götz | Boutsen VDS | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 35 | 15,461 |
5 | 30 | Silver Cup | Calan Williams, Sam de Haan | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | 35 | 15,872 |
6 | 7 | Pro Cup | Nicolas Baert, Mattia Drudi | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 35 | 20.099 |
7 | 88 | Gold Cup | Lorenzo Patrese, Lorenzo Ferrari | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 35 | 26.155 |
8 | 159 | Pro Cup | Benjamin Goethe, Tom Gamble | Garage 59 | McLaren 720S GT3 EVO | 35 | 32.144 |
9 | 111 | Gold Cup | Simon Gachet, Lucas Legeret | CSA Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 35 | 33.644 |
10 | 90 | Pro Cup | Phil Keen, Ezequiel Perez Companc | Madpanda Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 35 | 37,671 |
11 | 991 | Bronze Cup | Daniel Harper, Darren Leung | Century Motorsport | BMW M4 GT3 | 35 | 38,503 |
12 | 10 | Silver Cup | César Gazeau, Aurelien Panis | Boutsen VDS | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 35 | 38.918 |
13 | 6 | Gold Cup | Max Hofer, Luca Engstler | LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler by OneGroup | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 35 | 40.208 |
14 | 96 | Pro Cup | Sven Müller, Patric Niederhauser | Rutronik Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 35 | 40,503 |
15 | 69 | Pro Cup | Thierry Vermeulen, Giacomo Altoe | Emil Frey Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 35 | 41,764 |
16 | 78 | Bronze Cup | Sandy Mitchell, Rob Collard | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 35 | 42.184 |
17 | 25 | Gold Cup | Gilles Magnus, Paul Evrard | Sainteloc Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 35 | 42.977 |
18 | 93 | Bronze Cup | Eddie Cheever, Jonathan Hui | SKY – Tempest Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 35 | 44.455 |
19 | 66 | Bronze Cup | Dylan Pereira, Andrey Mukovoz | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 35 | 45.070 |
20 | 97 | Bronze Cup | Dennis Marschall, Dustin Blattner | Rutronik Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 35 | 45.391 |
21 | 52 | Silver Cup | Sean Hudspeth, Jef Machiels | AF Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 35 | 51,468 |
22 | 71 | Silver Cup | Eliseo Donno, Thomas Fleming | AF Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 35 | 51,602 |
23 | 72 | Bronze Cup | Patrick Kujala, Gabriel Rindone | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 35 | 51,926 |
24 | 44 | Bronze Cup | Steven Palette, Stephane Denoual | Schumacher CLRT | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 35 | 52,626 |
25 | 85 | Bronze Cup | Ugo De Wilde, Dmitry Gvazava | Imperial Racing | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 35 | 53.483 |
26 | 57 | Silver Cup | Magnus Gustavsen, Reece Barr | Winward Racing | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 35 | 54,619 |
27 | 188 | Bronze Cup | Louis Prette, Miguel Ramos | Garage 59 | McLaren 720S GT3 EVO | 35 | 54.948 |
28 | 26 | Silver Cup | Marcus Paverud, Ivan Klymenko | Sainteloc Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 35 | 57.167 |
29 | 12 | Silver Cup | Dante Rappange, Lorens Lecertua | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 35 | 1:19.953 |
30 | 21 | Gold Cup | David Pittard, Matisse Lismont | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 26 | -12:39.672 |
NC | 11 | Gold Cup | James Jakes, Razvan Umbrarescu | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 11 | -41:48.601 |
NC | 99 | Pro Cup | Alex Aka, Ricardo Feller | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 9 | -44:48.794 |
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