Team WRT’s Charles Weerts, Ugo De Wilde and Kelvin van der Linde won the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Circuit Paul Ricard tonight.
Its #32 BMW M4 GT3 Evo came alive once the sun set shortly before the halfway mark of the six-hour race, as Weerts charged from eighth to second in the third hour. Van der Linde then proceeded to pass Rutronik Racing’s Patric Niederhauser for the lead with one hour and 45 minutes to go, and pulled away to take victory by 4.353 seconds.
It’s a maiden Endurance Cup victory for De Wilde, with van der Linde and Weerts both taking their first win since Imola in 2022.
“The car really came alive when the night came,” said Weerts. “I’m extremely happy. Today is one of my first races without Dries [Vanthoor] – this one is definitely thanks to him because he made me who I am and helped me to develop as a driver.”
“I can’t believe it,” added De Wilde, who was making his first start since becoming a BMW M factory driver.
“We just did our work. It was difficult in Free Practice and Pre Qualifying, but we kept working, and this team and this brand are amazing.”
The pole sitting #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel controlled the opening hour of the race until the timing of a Full Course Yellow around the first pit stop window allowed Ayhancan Güven to take the lead aboard Schumacher CLRT’s #22 Porsche 911 GT3.R (992).
A rapid Dean MacDonald in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo passed Güven in the second hour, but the McLaren would lose out to Rutronik Racing’s #96 Porsche at the second round of pit stops.
Rutronik’s Alessio Picariello held the lead through the middle stints, as the Belgian driver and the #32 BMW, driven firstly by Weerts and then De Wilde, slowly pulled away from the rest of the field.
Picariello and De Wilde made way for Niederhauser and van der Linde, respectively, at the penultimate round of pit stops, and with an hour and 45 minutes to go the BMW driver pulled alongside the Porsche out of the final corner and took a lead he’d hold to the finish. The race was remarkably clean, going without any major incidents or interventions from the Safety Car as the forecasted rain held off until van der Linde was completing his final lap.
Niederhauser, Picariello and Sven Müller came home second, with Güven, Klaus Bachler, and Laurin Heinrich rounding out the podium, 32 seconds further behind.
Engel, Lucas Auer and Matteo Cairoli finished fourth, ahead of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim in the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo and the #98 ROWE Racing BMW of Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Raffaele Marciello. A puncture in the fifth hour forced Marciello off-strategy, but a late Full Course Yellow allowed him to make the extra pit stop required without losing any positions..
Sixth on the road was the Gold Cup-winning #111 CSA Racing McLaren GT3 Evo of Simon Gachet, James Kell and Arthur Rougier, but a 10-second time penalty picked up by Rougier for not following the Race Director’s instructions dropped them back to seventh.
The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin finished eighth, ahead of a pair of Gold Cup entries, the #33 Verstappen.com Racing Aston Martin and #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW. HRT Ford Performance ended up just shy of the points-scoring places after a consistent run, with the #64 Mustang GT3 finishing 11th.
It was a challenging start to the season for defending champions AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors, with its pair of Pro class Ferrari 296 GT3s finishing 15th and 16th, respectively.
Silver Cup honours went to the #992 Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Charles Clark, Pedro Ebrahim and James Kellett, which finished 17 seconds ahead of series debutants Steller Motorsport and its #24 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Lorcan Hanafin, Kiern Jewiss and Matisse Lismont had a near-perfect run aboard the Corvette, staying out of trouble and in touch with the class leaders throughout.
The #60 VSR Lamborghini led Silver for the opening four and a half hours, but a 30-second time penalty for repeat track limit offences shortly after Alessio Deledda lost the lead to Clark ended its hopes of victory. Deledda, Michele Berettta and Finlay Hutchison ended up in sixth.
In the Bronze Cup, Dennis Marschall held off Paradine Competition’s Dan Harper to take an impressive comeback victory for himself, Dustin Blattner and Conrad Laursen in Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari 296 GT3, after Blattner was tipped into a spin on the opening lap.
Kessel took the car off-strategy during a Full Course Yellow in the opening hour, with a fortunately timed FCY in the final hour allowing Marschall to jump Harper for the lead.
Despite running wide at Turn 10 on the final lap, Marschall was able to keep the #991 BMW Harper shared with Sean Gelael and Darren Leung out of attacking range to bring home the win. Kessel’s #8 296 GT3 of David Fumanelli, Nicolò Rosi and Niccolò Schirò completed the podium.
After showing strong pace during qualifying, the race turned into a disaster for Garage 59 as all three of its McLaren GT3 Evos ran into issues. The Pro class #59 retired after only five laps, with the #58 retiring from the Gold Cup lead after a master switch failed at the penultimate round of pit stops. The #188, which was spun out of the Bronze Cup lead on the opening lap, also had a long spell in the garage on its way to 54th overall.
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup resumes at Monza with a three-hour race on 1 June. Before then, the opening two events of the Sprint Cup will be held at Brands Hatch and Zandvoort, on 3/4 May and 16-18 May respectively.
Images courtesy of BMW & SRO/JEP
