Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing stormed to its maiden GT World Challenge Europe victory this evening, as Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella dominated the first Sprint Cup encounter at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France.
Starting from pole position, Gounon pulled out an eight-second lead during his opening stint in the 2 Seas Motorsport-run #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, meaning Juncadella could comfortably emerge in the lead after climbing aboard during the mandatory pit stop.
A multi-car incident with 21 minutes to go brought out a Full Course Yellow, neutralising the race for 10 minutes.
At the restart, Juncadella saw his lead margin slashed to under three seconds, as the chasing #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Arthur Leclerc and #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Nicki Thiim both recovered tyre temperature quicker than the #3 Mercedes-AMG.
The gap, however, then stabilised, with Juncadella bringing the car home 2.597 seconds clear.
It is a maiden Sprint Cup victory for Juncadella, and the second for Gounon.
“It’s never easy,” Juncadella commented. “Sprint racing is hectic. You need to be spot on with everything. Obviously, 80% of the job was done by my teammate. He did an amazing quali, amazing first stint, pulled a very comfortable gap that just made things easier; we could chill a bit more at the pit stop.
“I had a comfortable gap after the stop so I could just manage a bit. Amazing to get the first proper win!”
Behind, the runner-up spot went to Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, who fought through from ninth on the grid. A strong start from Neubauer moved the #50 Ferrari into the top five, with solid pit work promoting Leclerc into second.
Leclerc then spent the second half of the race holding off Thiim, who secured the first Sprint Cup podium of the season for himself and Kobe Pauwels.
Fourth went to the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, which ran third early on but lost ground in its pit stop, ahead of the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Dean Macdonald and Marvin Kirchhöfer, which climbed up from 13th on the grid.
The #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi finished sixth, with the sister #32 effort of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde recovering to seventh from 17th on the grid to retain their drivers’ championship lead.
At the halfway point of the season, the defending champions have a seven-point lead over Juncadella, who has climbed from fourth to second in the drivers’ standings today.
One of the big losers in the title battle was the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) of Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller, which finished outside the points in 13th after Buus qualified 21st and lost further ground after being shuffled out on the opening lap.
Gold Cup honours, in eighth overall, went to the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Gilles Magnus and Robin Knutsson, with the Belgian squad reversing its awful run of luck so far this year by leading throughout from pole.
The #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche was ninth, ahead of the Gold Cup-entered #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Alex Aka and Dylan Pereira. It completes an impressive day for Pereira, who arrived at Magny-Cours from the Nürburgring, where he had completed in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, finishing third overall and winning in class.
Third in Gold went to the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta, which retained its championship lead.
2 Seas Motorsport added further success in the Bronze Cup, where its #222 Mercedes-AMG of Kiern Jewiss and Charles Dawson triumphed. Jewiss ran second overall during the opening stint, with Dawson emerging from the pit stop inside the top 10 before finishing 11th overall.
The championship-leading #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche completed the Bronze Cup podium. Fourth was the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, ahead of the #12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes-AMG, which ran second in class in the opening stint before falling back.
In Silver, the #30 Team WRT BMW of Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro extended its championship lead to 22.5 points with another dominant victory. The pair finished 15th overall, over five seconds up on the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, with the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin in third.
The #34 Aston Martin was one of five cars involved in the incident which brought out the race’s only Full Course Yellow, as contact between Jamie Day and the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Michael Blanchemain triggered a chain reaction which resulted in damage to the #5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren, #52 AF Corse Ferrari and #84 Eastalent Racing Audi. All three of these cars were forced to retire.
The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, which Oliver Söderström qualified on Silver pole, started from the pit lane due to a vibration, but managed to recover to fifth in class.
The action at Magny-Cours continues tomorrow, with Qualifying 2 at 10:50 CEST before Race 2 at 15:30 CEST.
UPDATE: The #222 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG was awarded a 18-second time penalty post-race for speeding under Full Course Yellow, demoting it from first to third in the Bronze Cup. The #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikhov has therefore inherited the win, its second of the season.
The #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi was also awarded a 18-second time penalty post-race for speeding under Full Course Yellow, demoting it from second to fourth in Gold. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari was promoted to second, with the #58 Garage 59 McLaren moving on to the podium.
For the same offence, the #66 Tresor Racing Audi received a five-second penalty, which did not affect its class position, whilst the #12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes-AMG was demoted from fifth to eighth in Bronze due to a 18-second penalty.
Image courtesy of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
