GTWC | Porsche-Rutronik Loses Race 1, Mercedes on Pole for Race 2

The morning definitely got off to a fireworks start at Magny-Cours, where Qualifying 2 of the GT World Challenge Europe got off to a flying start with several twists and turns on and off the track.

The first concerned the finishing order of Race 1, held at night on Saturday evening, with the announcement of a 5″ penalty imposed on the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche for ‘Unsafe Release’ at the pit stop just a few minutes before the start of Qualifying 2.

After analyzing the images, the stewards found the 911 of Patric Niederhauser and Sven Müller guilty of an unsafe start from its pit stop, while the #71 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Thomas Fleming was approaching.

The penalty sees the German team’s duo slip to third place, with victory going to the #32 BMW of Vanthoor/Weerts, followed by the #48 Mercedes of Auer/Engel (Winward Racing).

Ironically, Rutronik had already missed out on the GOLD CUP class win for the same reason, as the #97 Porsche was sent back onto the track as the #78 Lamborghini was approaching.

Ahead of today’s timing session, SRO also tweaked the Balance of Performance for both Aston Martin and McLaren, removing 15kg from the Vantage and 10kg from the 720S, while also modifying the high-rpm power output for both models.

As in Q1, this time too the red flag was shown after a couple of minutes due to a fratricidal collision between the Comtoyou Aston Martins driven by Dante Rappange (#12) and Matisse Lismont (#21) which required the intervention of the cranes.

This prompted the stewards to reset the clock to 9’44” to allow the drivers to better warm up their tyres and attack the lead, but a spin by Stephane Denoual with the #44 Schumacher CLRT Porsche ending up in the gravel at turn 3 stopped everything again with 5’49” available and only 3 cars with a valid time set.

Before they could restart, Tom Kalender got stuck in the sand in the same spot as Denoual in the #90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes, but in this case the session was not interrupted and in the end Jules Gounon took the win at the wheel of the #9 Mercedes in 1’35″537, giving Boutsen VDS its first pole position start in the PRO Class and overall.

#48 Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER, Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO: Lucas Auer, Maro Engel

Photo by: SRO

Alongside him on the front row will be the #159 McLaren of Tom Gamble (Garage 59), stopped 0″135 behind the AMG and followed by the #48 Mercedes of Maro Engel (Winward Racing), with Max Hofer taking the #6 Team Engstler Audi to fourth place and Pole Position for the GOLD CUP Class.

The Ferraris of Emil Frey Racing instead obtained a fifth and seventh place thanks to Konsta Lappalainen (#14) and Thierry Vermeulen (#69), separated by the Aston Martin #7 of Mattia Drudi (Comtoyou Racing), who is just over half a second behind the leader.

The #32 BMW-WRT of Charles Weerts is eighth ahead of three Audis, first of which is the #26 of Ivan Lymenko (Saintéloc Racing), poleman in the SILVER CUP class, with the #88 of Lorenzo Ferrari (Tresor Attempto Racing) behind and the #25 of his teammate Gilles Magnus, second and third respectively in the GOLD CUP.

Eliseo Donno placed the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 12th overall and second in SILVER, keeping behind him Cesar Gazeau in the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes, his class rival, and the #99 Audi of Alex Aka (Tresor Attempto).

You have to go down to 18th place overall to find the #188 McLaren of Garage 59 that Miguel Ramos puts first in the BRONZE CUP class, narrowly beating Dustin Blattner (Porsche-Rutronik #97) and Dmitry Gvazava (Lamborghini-Imperiale #85), while Darren Leung is fourth in the #991 BMW of Century Motorsport.

The #96 Porsche-Rutronik did not set any valid times and is therefore relegated to the back of the starting grid for Race 2, scheduled for 2.45pm.