Rutronik Porsche Clinches Endurance Cup Crown, Garage 59 Wins

Photo: JEP/SRO

Garage 59 took a dominant victory in a nail-biting GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season finale in Barcelona as Rutronik Porsche drivers Patric Niederhauser, Alessio Picariello and Sven Muller clinched the Pro class title.

With pre-event points leaders Maro Engel, Matteo Cairoli and Lucas Auer running outside the points in their Winward-run Team MANN-FILTER Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, Rutronik needed a seventh place finish to become the first Porsche team ever to win the Endurance Cup.

Niederhauser started the decisive final stint 11th and made good progress to pass Alessio Rovera (AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3), fellow 911 GT3 R driver Larry Ten Voorde (Schumacher CLRT) and Marco Sorensen (Comtoyou Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo) before homing in on Harry King’s 2 Seas Motorsport-run Verstappen.com Aston.

Auer could make no inroads on the tenth place Henrique Chaves (Walkenhorst Aston) and with a five-second post-race penalty looming, issued because Engel was deemed to have gained an advantage by leaving the track at the race’s first corner, was left at the mercy of King’s defences.

After patiently sizing up his opponent, Niederhauser finally got the position into Turn 5 with nine minutes to go and clinched the title by a single point.

Out front, Dean Macdonald, Adam Smalley and Louis Prette controlled the race from pole position in the Gold Cup McLaren 720S GT3 EVO.

After Macdonald had controlled the opening stint, Smalley briefly trailed the off-sync Optimum Motorsport McLaren of James Allen before moving ahead during the middle phase of the race.

Prette then controlled the remainder of the contest to win by 18.571 seconds from fellow Gold Cup entrants Jens Klingmann, Al Faisal Al Zubair and Ben Tuck in the WRT-run No. 777 Al Manar Racing BMW M4 Evo GT3.

Klingmann started the final lap in third, having been overtaken by Pro class leader Raffaele Marciello’s No. 98 ROWE BMW with three minutes to go, but retook the position to demote Marciello, Augusto Farfus and Jesse Krohn to third.

A storming middle stint from Antonio Fuoco, charging up from 20th to third, had put his No. 50 Ferrari started by Eliseo Donno into the outright Pro class lead and in a position to challenge for victory, but Arthur Leclerc could not pass Klingmann during the final stint and ultimately lost third to the charging Marciello with 16 minutes to go.

The No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Alberto Di Folco, Leonardo Moncini and Alex Aka won the Silver Cup category in fifth overall. Along with Macdonald and the leading BMWs, it had been among the biggest beneficiaries of pitting at the first opportunity under a safety car in the first hour which also decided the outcome of the Bronze Cup championship.

A tangle between the No. 81 Winward Mercedes of Rinat Salikhov and Nicola Rosi’s No. 8 Kessel Ferrari resulted in the retirement of both cars, meaning Kessel’s No. 74 Ferrari of Dennis Marschall, Conrad Laursen and Dustin Blattner could not be caught. Marschall and Blattner were also confirmed as combined Bronze Cup champions.

Another crew to follow the the same strategy was WRT’s No. 32 BMW, which proved crucial in Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts securing the combined GTWCE title.

Despite starting 31st on the grid due to a yellow flag infraction in qualifying, the Sprint Cup champions finished sixth in the car they shared with Ugo de Wilde to capitalise on the galling non-score for MANN-FILTER’s Mercedes-AMG that was ultimately classified 13th.

King, together with Thierry Vermuelen and Chris Lulham, clinched the Gold Cup Endurance title with eighth overall, as Vermuelen and Lulham secured the combined class title.

Despite becoming embroiled in a first lap tangle, Will Moore, Jarrod Waberski and Mex Jansen bagged the Silver Cup Endurance title in 23rd overall, but combined Silver honours went to Boutsen VDS drivers Aurelien Panis and Cesar Gazeau. The Mercedes-AMG they shared with Loris Cabirou finished 19th overall and third of the Silver entries, denying Jansen the crown by seven points.

Completing a successful day for the Rutronik team, Morris Schuring, Loek Hartog and Antares Au took Bronze class victory in 12th overall, the result also giving Hartog and Au second in the Endurance Cup standings.

RESULTS: Race

Source: Sports Car 365