UPDATE: The #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini and #992 Paradine Competition BMW were both given a 10-second time penalty post-race for accelerating before the end of a Full Course Yellow period.
This has demoted the #78 from seventh to 11th overall, whilst the #992 has dropped from second to fourth in Silver.
Original report:
Garage 59 claimed victory in the second GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup race at Magny-Cours, as Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe became the first repeat winners of the season.
The #59 McLaren GT3 Evo came out on top in a race-long duel with the Race 1-winning #63 GRT-Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler, which finished just 0.156 seconds behind.
Pole sitter Kirchhöfer had an excellent start and slowly pulled away from Pepper throughout the opening stint, accumulating a 3.3-second advantage by the time the pit window opened.
The McLaren stayed ahead during the pit cycle, as Goethe and Engstler both emerged in lower-class traffic, which caused the lead gap to fluctuate wildly throughout the next few laps. Once the traffic cleared, however, the lead margin was down to under a second.
Engstler had his first look up the inside at Turn 9 with 27 minutes to go, with his best attempt to pass coming one lap later. The Lamborghini driver had a better exit out of the Adelaide hairpin and drew alongside into the Nürburgring chicane. Engstler had the inside line, and Goethe cut across the chicane as he maintained the race lead, with the stewards happy that no advantage had been gained.
Engstler kept the pressure on the McLaren throughout the remaining 25 minutes, with the gap never extending to more than one second, but despite a late rally, the #63 Lamborghini was unable to make a move for the win.
“He [Engstler] was all over the back of me, pretty much the whole stint,” Goethe said.
“At the start of the stint, I had a few cars hindering us, but at the end we got it clean. I was just trying to keep him behind the whole time. He was quick behind me, but I’m glad we managed to get the win.”
As they did in Race 1, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts completed the podium in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo to retain the drivers’ championship lead. The BMW pairing now lead Kirchhöfer and Goethe by 1.5 points, with four further crews still in mathematical contention ahead of the Valencia season finale.
The #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 of Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera finished fourth, ahead of Rutronik Racing’s Sven Müller and Patric Niederhauser. Rutronik’s #96 Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) ran 11th in the opening stint, but strong pit work vaulted them up the leaderboard.
Sixth on the road was the #50 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, but a 10-second penalty dropped them to 11th at the chequered flag. Neubauer was deemed responsible for a collision with Emil Frey Racing’s Chris Lulham whilst the pair fought over fourth place, which gave the Briton a puncture.
Sixth instead went to the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz, ahead of the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini and the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Victory in the Gold Cup went to the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Gilles Magnus and Paul Evrard, who finished ninth overall. The Audi pairing were over 10 seconds clear of the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, with the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi in third.
Despite the puncture dropping them to sixth from a likely class victory, Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen retained the Gold Cup drivers’ championship lead aboard the #69 Ferrari.
In the Silver Cup, Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels claimed their third consecutive victory aboard the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo to extend their championship lead.
Pole sitter Day lost the lead to Paradine Competition’s Mex Jansen on the opening lap, but the Aston Martin crew were 10 seconds faster in the pits to reclaim the top spot. Jansen’s co-driver Maxime Oosten held onto second aboard the #992 BMW, ahead of the #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG.
Bronze Cup honours went to the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Rinat Salikhov and Marvin Dienst. Salikhov pulled out a five-second advantage in the opening stint, which Dienst used to hold off a closing Dennis Marschall aboard the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The margin of victory was 0.716 seconds.
Marschall’s co-driver, Dustin Blattner, had placed the #74 Ferrari on pole position, but the American had to fight through the field early on following a grid penalty. The lead pair were a level above the rest of the Bronze Cup runners, with the #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini over 25 seconds behind in third.
The 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup concludes at Valencia on 19-21 September. Before then, the majority of competitors will be at the Nürburgring from 29-31 August for the fourth round of the Endurance Cup.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
