Garage 59 claimed the McLaren GT3 Evo’s maiden GT World Challenge Europe victory this afternoon, as Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe triumphed in a Red Flag-interrupted affair at Misano.
The #59 crew was never headed as they became the sixth different winners of the season, giving Garage 59 and McLaren their first Sprint Cup win since Nürburgring 2016 in the process.
Having started from pole position, Kirchhöfer had to fend off the attention of the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello on the opening lap.
Kirchhöfer ran deep at Turn 5, giving Marciello the chance to take the lead into Turn 8, but an aggressive block by Kirchhöfer kept the McLaren in front. The pair then traded purple sectors, pulling away from the rest of the field until the Red Flag was waved 15 minutes in for barrier repairs, following an accident for GRT – Grasser Racing Team’s Georgi Donczew.
After a delay of over two hours, the race resumed with two Safety Car laps before a sprint to the opening of the pit window. Kirchhöfer nailed the restart, giving the McLaren an advantage it would hold through the pit sequence.
The hopes of Marciello and Valentino Rossi ended with a Drive-Through penalty for pit lane speeding, dropping them to an eventual 21st-place finish. This, in turn, promoted the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Lucas Auer into second place with 13 minutes to go.
Auer rapidly closed down Goethe’s 2.2-second advantage, but stalled out at half a second behind, with the Austrian unable to find a way through. Goethe survived a lunge by Auer at Turn 8 on the final lap, and held on to win by 0.517 seconds.
“It seems every time we come here it gets better!”, exclaimed Goethe, who also secured his first outright GT World Challenge Europe success.
“It was a tough stint, quite hot. I had the first half of the stint quite free, and then Lucas [Auer] quite close to the rear of me, so just trying to hold him off.”
“He [Goethe]’s done a brilliant job,” added Kirchhöfer, who last won in the Sprint Cup in 2019. “Huge credit to Garage 59 and McLaren. They really improved their game so it’s amazing to be here.”
Auer and Maro Engel had to settle for second, with the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) of Sven Müller and Patric Niederhauser completing the podium.
Fourth went to the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 of Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera, whilst Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts recovered from 15th on the grid to finish fifth and retain their Sprint Cup drivers’ championship lead aboard the #32 Team WRT BMW.
Van der Linde and Weerts leave Misano just one point ahead of both Auer and Engel, and Kirchhöfer and Goethe, with Müller and Niederhauser 6.5 points behind in fourth.
In the overall drivers’ championship, combining Sprint and Endurance, van der Linde and Weerts and Auer and Engel are tied with four events to go.
Sixth went to the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin, ahead of the Gold Cup-winning #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham. Lulham exited the pits behind the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Paul Evrard, but hunted down the French driver and took the class lead into Turn 8.
Evrard and Gilles Magnus held onto eighth overall and second in Gold, with the #58 Garage 59 McLaren completing the Gold Cup podium.
Comtoyou Racing secured their first win of the year in the Silver Cup, although Kobe Pauwels and Jamie Day did it the hard way aboard the #21 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
Having started on pole, Pauwels fell to fourth on the opening lap, and the pair had to fight their way back through the field. Day made the decisive move with under 15 minutes to go, passing the eventual second-place finisher, the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Aurelien Panis, around the outside of Turn 15.
“I started the stint by getting blocked in the pit lane [as] one of the Bronze’s missed their box,” Day said.
“After that, I just got my head down. It did not matter what was in front of me, I was going past. To overtake on the outside there [Turn 15] was really difficult, but I was going to get it done either way.”
It was an entertaining Silver Cup battle throughout, with the #30 Team WRT BMW, which went on to finish third, and the points-leading #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi also enjoying spells in the lead.
In Bronze, Dmitriy Gvazava and Loris Spinelli triumphed in the #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, with Spinelli bringing the car home over five seconds clear of the #112 CSA Racing McLaren and #89 Lionspeed GP Porsche.
It was a disastrous race for the cars which started the day as the top two in the championship, as the #991 Paradine Competition and #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari both picked up multiple penalties on their way to ninth and 10th in class respectively.
The 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup continues with the penultimate round of the season at Magny-Cours on 1-3 August.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
