Comtoyou Aston Wins, Winward Mercedes-AMG Takes Title

Photo: SRO/JEP

Comtoyou Aston Martin drivers Marco Sorensen, Mattia Drudi and Nicki Thiim have taken a second GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup win of the season at the Nürburgring while Winward Mercedes-AMG trio Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer secured the title.

The No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo led for almost the entire three-hour race from pole but never enjoyed an advantage of much more than a second as first the No. 17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and then the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo piled on the pressure.

But the Aston trio resisted the attacks and Thiim crossed the line 0.490 seconds ahead of the McLaren that was shared by Joseph Loake, Dean Macdonald and Marvin Kirchhoefer.

However, a late ten-second penalty for the McLaren for a full-course yellow infringement dropped it to 11th in the final order and that promoted the No. 48 Winward Mercedes-AMG to the fourth place it needed to unexpectedly secure the Endurance Cup title with a round to spare.

The No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo was on the move at the start with Bastian Buus slotting ahead of the No. 17 Mercedes-AMG of Maxime Martin at the first corner but, when Buus then began to challenge Sorensen further around the lap, he was delayed and Martin was able to nip back ahead while Loake maintained fourth.

That was how the order stayed for almost the entire first hour until Lionspeed opted to blink first and pitted earlier than its rivals to attempt the undercut.

But, just as Ricardo Feller returned to the track aboard the Porsche that won the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, a full-course yellow was required with Tommy Pintos’ Greystone GT McLaren stranded in the Turn 12 gravel.

That ruined Lionspeed’s strategy as all of the other frontrunners pitted under the caution and Feller fell to 22nd.

Up at the front, Drudi successfully negotiated a trio of safety car restarts amid a truncated second hour to keep the lead until the second round of stops.

The No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche elected to pit at the end of the third caution period, which vaulted them up the order into the lead but they still required an extra late pit stop to reset their stint times.

This meant Thiim was still the net leader, although the Boutsen VDS Porsche never actually returned to the pits and was penalized post-race, but Kirchhoefer’s McLaren was now the Aston’s closest challenger as the No. 17 Mercedes-AMG struggled to fire up after its stop and fell to sixth.

Thiim maintained the slender advantage to the flag to cut the gap to the points-leading Mercedes-AMG but it was not enough to keep the overall Endurance Cup title race alive heading into the Portimao finale in October.

The late penalties meant the No. 32 WRT BMW of Jordan Pepper, Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde recovered from a three-place grid penalty for a practice infringement to take second place and a first podium of the season.

Completing the rostrum was the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon that was always in the front group but never able to quite challenge those cars ahead.

The Winward Mercedes-AMG of Engel, Stolz and Auer was then classified fourth to give Engel and Stolz their second Endurance Cup title and a first crown for Auer.

The No. 17 GetSpeed machine had to settle for fifth, just ahead of the No. 64 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Arjun Maini, Thomas Drouet and Fabio Scherer.

Seventh place went to the Gold Cup-winning No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II but they faced a tough battle to secure a first win of the season.

The No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren started on the class pole but a poor start for Benji Goethe put Alex Aka in the Audi into the lead.

Next to assume top spot was the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Nico Menzel, who pounced when Aka was delayed battling Maini’s Mustang.

While the McLaren dropped out at mid-distance with a gearbox problem, the lead pair emerged from their final stop right together with the Porsche of Gilles Magnus barging his way ahead of Dylan Pereira’s Audi at the first corner.

But still their battle was not settled with Pereira eventually making the decisive move on the inside of the Turn 1 hairpin to seal the spoils alongside Aka and Andrea Frassineti.

Menzel, Robin Knutsson and Magnus had to settle for second, while fourth place for the ROWE BMW of Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Tim Tramnitz was enough for it to move into the points lead at the expense of the No. 58 McLaren.

While the overall crown was sealed an event early, the No. 30 WRT BMW of Matisse Lismont, Amaury Cordeel and Ignacio Montenegro also sealed the Silver Cup title despite missing out on victory.

They led for practically the whole race until the No. 65 HRT Mustang of series debutant Niklas Kalus passed Montenegro with five minutes to go to give the Ford he shared with Eduardo Coseteng and Nicolas Baert the class glory in 13th overall.

The Bronze Cup fight was initially led by a charging James Kellett in the No. 991 Paradine Competition BMW.

However, when team owner Darren Leung climbed aboard for the second stint, he lost several places and then picked up a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the pit lane entry.

The No. 87 Winward Mercedes-AMG was another to feel the wrath of officials as additional team members moved tires into the pit lane during one of its stops, which resulted in a five-second penalty and meant the crew had to settle for the runner-up spot.

All of this handed the Bronze spoils to the No. 222 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Kiern Jewiss, Charles Dawson and Reece Barr, the squad’s first Endurance podium of the season.

It was a tricky race for the points-leading No. 74 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo as stand-in driver Constantin Dressler spun the No. 84 Eastalent Audi at the first corner and picked up drive-through penalty that ultimately consigned the Ferrari crew to third in class.

Although this puts Dennis Marschall mathematically clear in the points race, he cannot secure the Bronze title as a solo FIA Platinum-graded driver.

RESULTS: Race

Source: Sports Car 365