No Marciello? No problem for Mercedes-AMG in Macau today. Factory driver Maro Engel won the 2024 FIA GT World Cup Main Race – which was held in treacherous conditions after rain showers pre-race – in dramatic fashion from fourth on the grid.
En route to victory, the German fought past the WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor and benefitted from a late tangle between Antonio Fuoco and Qualification Race winner Raffaele Marciello late in 15-lap encounter.
The race, which started under safety car due to the conditions, was gripping from the moment the lights went green. It reached a crescendo with two laps to go when the three-way battle for the lead between Marciello, Fuoco and Engel erupted.
Fuoco pushed and made a bold dive up the inside of Marciello at the end of the 13th lap in his AF Corse Ferrari to put his #83 296 GT3 in the lead for the first time. But his time spent out front would be short-lived, as contact with Marciello at Lisboa moments later at the start of Lap 14 sent both cars down the escape road and out of contention.
The Swiss, in a desperate attempt to dive up the inside in his #1 Toro Racing BMW, was unable to slow down in time for the corner and tagged the rear of the Ferrari. This allowed Engel to sneak through in his #130 Team GMR AMG GT3 and into the lead with just two laps to go.
There was further drama before the flag when Engel was handed a five-second time penalty for his move on Vanthoor for third, which ended with the WRT dropping down out of the race after hitting the barriers. However, in clear air, he was able to pull a gap of over 10 seconds to Augusto Farfus in the closing moments and secure the victory.
“It’s unbelievable!” He said. “I’m over the moon and proud to have taken my fourth win in Macau. It was definitely one of the toughest, if not the toughest weekend we’ve had here so far.
“We saw that we didn’t have the performance to win in the dry. When I woke up last night and heard the heavy rain, I thought to myself that this could be our chance. It was an intense race and of course, you always need a bit of luck in Macau. We took our chance with both hands.”
While it wasn’t the victory everyone at BMW dreamed of and expected pre-race with Marciello and Vanthoor locking out the front row, the German brand still salvaged a double podium. Augusto Farfus took second place in his Team KRC M4 after a quiet outing, finishing a few seconds up the road from Sheldon van der Linde’s WRT example.
Off the podium, the pair of Absolute Racing Porsches from Alessio Picariello and Laurens Vanthoor took fourth and fifth, respectively, ahead of the first Audi and Lamborghini. Christopher Haase put his #33 Phanton Global R8 sixth, while Edoardo Mortara took seventh in his Theodore Racing Huracan.
After the incident at Lisboa Antonio Fuoco would come home a frustrating ninth and Marciello would be classified 18th, a lap down after abandoning his car.
Images courtesy of Mercedes-AMG
