Patric Niederhauser and Sven Muller took a historic first win for the Rutronik Racing Porsche in Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Europe at Magny-Cours, where the Sprint Cup protagonists put in a strong performance that started at dusk and ended at night.
Before the start, a touching minute of silence was held to remember Luca Persiani, the former driver and coach who supported several protagonists of the series, who tragically passed away last Monday in an accident while on holiday.
At the start, poleman Ben Green held on to the lead very well despite pressure from the BMWs of Dan Harper and Dries Vanthoor, the latter capable of climbing from 6th place in just a few corners, leaving behind the Porsche of Muller and the Audi of Christopher Haase.
On lap 3 Vanthoor took advantage of a slight mistake by Harper to take second place and the M4s of WRT and Century stuck to the Ferrari of Green, who was unable to pull away.
#14 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Konsta Lappalainen, Ben Green
Photo by: SRO
The first half of the race did not provide any great excitement until lap 13, when Vanthoor broke the deadlock by attacking at the Green hairpin; the Emil Frey Racing driver held out until the following chicane, cut by both, then gave up first place to the Belgian to avoid incurring penalties.
Here Harper tried to take advantage by diving inside Green at turn 14, but jumping on the kerb he lost control, hitting the side of the #14 296, sending it into the gravel; for the episode the #991 BMW saw 10″ added to its final time, thus losing the victory in the Bronze Cup Class.
During the carousel of pit stops, Team WRT did everything very well by sending Charles Weerts back out on track as virtual leader, but a Niederhauser with a knife between his teeth (who had inherited the wheel of the #96 Porsche from Muller) got close to him in just a few laps, overtaking the Belgian on lap 21 with a show of strength worthy of applause.
With darkness now falling on the French track, the PROs have as expected gained the main positions in the Top 10, leaving the battles for the other categories to the riders behind them.
Niederhauser made no mistakes and brought his #96 911 GT3-R to within a couple of seconds of the threatening #32 BMW of Weerts/Vanthoor, who earned a very precious second place in terms of the championship considering the excellent recovery by the #48 Mercedes of Auer/Engel (Winward Racing), capable of snatching the third step of the podium after the pit stops.
#32 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts
Photo by: SRO
Altoè/Vermeulen also achieved an excellent fourth place, moving up the order with the #69 Ferrari of Emil Frey Racing, while their teammates Green/Lappalainen finished sadly behind them with many regrets and lost points that risk weighing heavily on the standings.
Applause for Ferrari/Patrese, who crossed the finish line sixth at the wheel of the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi to celebrate a great victory in the GOLD CUP class, narrowly beating the #111 CSA Racing R8 of Gachet/Legeret.
In eighth place we find the Mercedes #90 of Madpanda Motorsport that Pérez-Companc/Kalender lead to success in the SILVER CUP class, while the top 10 is completed by the McLaren #159 of Gamble/Goethe and the Audi #84 of Reicher/Haase (Eastalent Racing).
Behind the aforementioned R8 is the #10 Mercedes of Gazeau/Panis (Boutsen VDS), which is second in the SILVER Class, its podium completed by the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi driven by Klymenko/Paverud.
#48 Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Lucas Auer, Maro Engel
Photo by: SRO
The Audi of Engstler/Hofer (Team Engstler) also climbs onto the GOLD podium, despite losing a lot of ground in the second part of the race, but also taking advantage of the penalty inflicted on the Audi #25 of Saintéloc which finds itself here with the Aston Martins #21 and #11 of Comtoyou Racing behind it, also with penalties on their backs.
In the BRONZE CUP class, the Lamborghini #78 of Barwell Motorsport won with the Collard/Mitchell duo, the only ones not to make any mistakes or commit any misconduct, and therefore without receiving any punishments.
The #97 Porsche of Rutronik Racing with Blattner/Marschall had crossed the finish line first, but was given a 5″ penalty for ‘Unsafe Release’ at the pit stop, as it had been restarted just as an AF Corse Ferrari arrived.
The 911 slipped to second ahead of the aforementioned BMW-Century #991, which nevertheless took the last step of the category podium at the expense of the Lamborghini #85 of Gvazava/De Wilde (Imperiale Racing) and the Audi #66 of Pereira/Mukovoz (Tresor Attempto Racing), which collapsed in a final to forget after having also been in the overall Top 10.
Qualifying 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 9.10am to draw up the starting grid for Race 2 at 2.45pm.
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