UPDATE: The #32 WRT BMW has been awarded a 155-second post-race time penalty for an avoidable collision with the #9 Porsche. This has dropped the car from seventh to 30th.
Tresor Attempto Racing has claimed an upset victory with its Silver Cup-entered #66 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at Monza this afternoon, in a chaotic GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup affair.
Six cautions interrupted the three-hour race, which, with its mandatory three timed pit stops, is already traditionally amongst the most complicated on the Endurance Cup schedule.
The #66 Audi of Ariel Levi, Sebastian Øgaard and Rocco Mazzola managed to take all of its pit stops under Full Course Yellow conditions, and cycled to the front at the final round of stops when Mazzola jumped the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Marvin Dienst in the pits.
The green flag waved for the final time with seven minutes to go, and Dienst attacked Mazzola on the restart, but was unable to make a move around the outside of Turn 1 stick.
Unfortunately, on the next lap, Dienst was collected at Turn 1 by the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) of Aleksei Nesov, which had made contact with the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Kelvin van der Linde. The incident saw the Safety Car called again, and the race did not resume.
Mazzola, therefore, could bring the #66 Audi home for the team’s and all three drivers’ maiden GT World Challenge Europe victory.
Second went to the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER AMG GT3 EVO of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer, which led for the majority of the race until a strategic miscall towards the end of the penultimate hour.
The German-American squad elected to keep Stolz out for an extra lap under a Full Course Yellow so he could complete his minimum drive time, but the race changed to a full Safety Car before he pitted. This meant Auer emerged 28th, but rapid pace from the Austrian, and a well-timed penultimate FCY, allowed them to pull off an impressive recovery drive.
The #555 CSA Racing McLaren GT3 Evo of Romain Andriolo, Baptiste Moulin and Lorens Lecertua completed the podium, having recovered from being involved in one of many incidents at the opening chicane.
Boutsen VDS’ #2 Porsche finished fourth, and best of those not to benefit from the late FCY, with #98 Rowe Racing BMW ending up fifth.
Sixth went to the #23 Team RJN McLaren, which will be disappointed not to have achieved more having been in contention for victory.
The British outfit had cycled into third during the opening half of the race, and moved into the lead when the #32 BMW and #2 Porsche made their final pit stops with 49 minutes to go.
Dörr had pulled out the required margin to potentially remain in front when he made his stop with 22 minutes remaining, but a FCY was called for separate incidents for the #44 Greystone GT McLaren and #222 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG whilst Dörr was in the pits, which dropped the German behind the #66 Audi and #87 Mercedes-AMG.
Any chance of a late-race charge ended when Dörr ran through the gravel at the second Lesmo on the final restart, as Auer made a move for third up the inside.
The #32 WRT BMW is another car which will leave Monza wondering what could’ve been, having finished seventh. The Belgian outfit, in a similar play to how it won this race two years ago, elected to perform its first timed pit stop under an early Safety Car, which enabled Jordan Pepper to short-fuel at the end of the second hour and jump into the lead, only for the late FCY to cause co-driver van der Linde to end the final pit sequence down in eighth.
Lamborghini’s Temerario GT3 recorded its first Top-10 finish in SRO competition, with eighth for the #96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini, ahead of the Bronze Cup-winning #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Dustin Blattner, Lorenzo Patrese and Dennis Marschall.
The #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo was second in Bronze, in 10th overall, with the #42 Century Motorsport BMW completing the Bronze podium.
Gold Cup honours, in 15th overall, went to the AF Corse-supported #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari of Simon Birch, Malthe Ebdrup and Frederik Schandorff, after an attritional affair for the class. The #58 Garage 59 McLaren and #998 ROWE Racing BMW completed the class podium, with the former retaining its championship lead.
The race was marred by a significant accident at the first corner, which eliminated several leading contenders.
Maxime Martin, who started 11th aboard the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, moved onto the asphalt at the pit exit at the start. The Belgian potentially made light contact with Alessio Rovera’s #51 AF Corse Ferrari when he attempted to merge back in, with Rovera then contacting Nicki Thiim’s #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, and Thiim in turn collecting the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Gilles Magnus.
Rovera then rebounded into the #59 Garage 59 McLaren of Marvin Kirchhöfer, causing the McLaren to uncontrollably slide through the grass and into the path of the race leaders.
The top four starters, Arjun Maini’s pole-sitting #64 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo, Lorenzo Ferrari’s #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, Finn Wiebelhaus’ #65 Ford and Ricardo Feller’s #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, were all collected as they navigated Rettifilo.
The #007 Aston Martin, #10 Porsche, #51 Ferrari, #59 McLaren, #64 Ford, #65 Ford and #80 Porsche all retired, with the #99 Audi and #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG both later retiring due to the damage sustained.
Martin emerged from the chaos in the lead, ahead of the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter AMG, #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche and #46 WRT BMW. The latter, however, retired before the restart from the ensuing Safety Car, due to a broken clutch.
Martin was awarded a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for the incident, with the team electing to retire once the penalty was served.
This penalty gave the lead to the #48 Mercedes-AMG, which remained out front until an off for the #914 Razoon – more than racing Porsche triggered the penultimate round of pit stops, during which it fell back, towards the end of the second hour.
As one of only two cars to score points in both of the first two rounds, the Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter trio has moved into the lead of the drivers’ championship, with a 10-point advantage over the #007 Aston Martin crew.
The next round for the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup is its blue-riband event, the 24 Hours of Spa, on 25th to 28th June 2026.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
