Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril claimed victory in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup season opener at Brands Hatch for AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors.
After falling from second to third at the start of the race, Rovera pitted the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 one lap later than their closest rivals, and the Italian squad was able to get Abril out in the race lead.
The Monegasque driver had to aggressively defend from Chris Lulham in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari on his out lap, with the pair making contact on the run to Druids, but Abril stayed ahead.
The contact allowed Garage 59’s Benjamin Goethe to take second from Lulham, and despite sticking within a second of Abril throughout the closing stint. The German driver was unable to make a move aboard the #59 McLaren GT3 Evo.
Abril held on for AF Corse’s first Sprint Cup victory since 2022, and his own first win since 2019. For Rovera, meanwhile, it was a win on his Sprint Cup debut.
“The most important thing was the pit stop,” commented Rovera.
“The guys did an amazing job, the driver change was perfect…we practised quite a lot and it paid off.”
Pole sitter Thierry Vermeulen held the lead at the start in the #69 Ferrari, as Marvin Kirchhöfer in the #59 McLaren passed Rovera up the inside of Paddock Hill Bend for second place. Vermeulen stretched out his lead margin to two seconds and pitted as soon as the pit window opened with 25 minutes to go.
Kirchhöfer followed him in, and despite a quicker pit stop, Garage 59 was unable to leapfrog Emil Frey Racing in the pits. Both, however, would proceed to lose out to the #51 Ferrari of Rovera and Abril.
Kirchhöfer and Goethe finished second, with pole sitters Vermeulen and Lulham claiming Gold Cup honours in third overall.
“I came out straight into the thick of it,” said Lulham.
“In the end, I couldn’t defend from the McLaren [of Goethe] and put an attack on the Ferrari [of Abril] at the same time and lost out, but was able to hold P3.”
The #14 Emil Frey Racing entry of Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen, and the #50 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors 296 GT3 of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, made it four Ferraris in the top five.
Defending drivers’ champions Lucas Auer and Maro Engel finished sixth in the #48 Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, following a five-second pit lane speeding penalty for the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) of Sven Müller and Patric Niederhauser.
Auer initially moved up to fourth at the start, but was shuffled out later around the first lap and fell back to seventh. The Austrian driver lost touch with the leading sextet through the opening stint, but strong pit work enabled the #48 Mercedes-AMG to rejoin the lead fight.
The #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo finished seventh, ahead of the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, which lost out in the pit stops having ran sixth early on. The #96 Porsche dropped to ninth following its penalty, only eight seconds behind the winner. The #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 rounded out the Top 10.
AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors added Silver Cup honours to its overall triumph, with the #52 296 GT3 of Marcos Siebert and Jef Machiles finishing 11th overall. Machiels originally crossed the line second in class, but a pit lane infringement penalty awarded post-race dropped the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche of Loek Hartog and Eshan Pieris from first to fourth.
Hartog, who started third in Silver, took the lead on the opening lap of the race as polesitter Lorens Lecertua was shuffled wide aboard the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and fell back to sixth. The Dutch driver extended his lead through the opening stint, and Pieris emerged from the pits with a five-second margin over Machiels.
Machiels managed to reduce the gap to under two seconds by the checkered flag, more than enough to inherit the class win once Rutronik’s penalty was applied. The #992 Paradine Competition BMW and #10 Boutsen VDS AMG GT3 Evo completed the Silver Cup podium.
Matisse Lismont and Jesse Salmenautio brought Steller Motorsport’s #24 Corvette Z06 GT3.R home ninth in Silver on the Sprint Cup debut for both the car and the team. Lismont was one of the few drivers able to make up positions after the first few corners in the opening stint, with overtaking proving challenging at the narrow Kent venue.
It was a difficult Sprint Cup debut for the Ford Mustang GT3, with Jusuf Owega and Romain Andriolo ending up 29th in the #64 HRT Ford Performance entry after being another car to receive a pit lane speeding penalty.
GRT – Grasser Racing Team’s pair of Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2s had to start from the back of the grid following Balance of Performance non-conformity in Qualifying. Any chance of a recovery for the #63 Pro entry ended with two penalties, one for pit lane speeding and another when Jordan Pepper caused a collision with the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Jamie Day.
The #30 Team WRT M4 GT3 Evo was forced to start from the pit lane following an electrical issue, with Gustav Bergström and Gilles Stadsbader recovering to sixth in Silver following an excellent pit sequence.
Race 2 at Brands Hatch takes place at 15:45 BST, with Engel set to start from pole position in the #48 Mercedes-AMG (https://www.dailysportscar.com/2025/05/03/vermeulen-engel-share-spoils-in-brands-hatch-qualifying.html).
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
