Comtoyou Racing claimed an unlikely victory in tonight’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard, after a late-race charge from Nicki Thiim.
Thiim, who shared the #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo with Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi, successfully hunted down the dominant Winward Racing-run #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER AMG GT3 EVO of Lucas Auer to triumph in the six-hour affair.
The #48 Mercedes-AMG had been in control throughout, having started from pole position, but a Safety Car inside the final hour saw its 15-second lead wiped out and set up a 25-minute shootout for victory.
Auer restarted with six lapped cars between himself and Thiim, and quickly established a 3.9-second advantage. Once Thiim was clear of traffic, however, he began reeling in the Austrian, setting the fastest lap as he closed to within one second with 11 minutes to go.
Thiim started pressuring Auer down the Mistral Straight, and with eight minutes to go, Auer made a mistake and ran wide into Signes, letting the Aston Martin driver through.
Auer rallied again in the closing laps, but Thiim held on to secure victory by 0.806 seconds.
It was an impressive comeback drive from the #7 Aston Martin, which lost time with a puncture in the opening hour which saw Sorensen dive to the pit lane without the Comtoyou Racing squad being ready to receive him, but then methodically worked is way back forward to establish itself back in the top two from the fourth hour onwards.
“What a last hour, what a race!” Thiim declared.
“It started off with a puncture, and we just came back, the team worked really good and the car was amazing. We really brainstormed the whole thing this weekend, we tried something completely new with the car, the old Vantage’s still got it!”
It is Aston Martin’s first GT World Challenge Europe win since Drudi, Sorensen and Thiim triumphed with Comtoyou at the 2024 24 Hours of Spa.
Auer, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz finished second, with the dominant Gold Cup winner, the #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo of Benjamin Goethe, Louis Prette and Tom Fleming, completing the podium.
Goethe was the only driver to have headed the #48 Mercedes-AMG before the closing laps, having had a better reaction at the start than Engel, but was unable to make a move for the lead stick at Turn 1. Behind, multiple incidents saw four cars forced into retirement, including the #555 CSA Racing McLaren which had qualified second in Silver, and the safety car called upon for the first of only two interventions.
In the early stages, the Mercedes-AMG was the car to have, with the German marque’s trio of factory-supported entries running 1-2-3. Their closest challenger was the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2), with Thomas Preining making a spectacular four-wide move on the Mistral to climb from fourth to second towards the end of the second hour.
A mechanical problem, however, saw Preining’s co-driver Ricardo Feller bring the car into the garage to retire shortly after the halfway mark.
As day made way for night, the #48 Mercedes-AMG remained comfortably out front, although both the #17 GetSpeed and #3 Verstappen Racing cars slipped down the order as a long green flag spell saw the field spread out. Just 11 cars remained on the lead lap when Eddie Cheever pulled off in the #93 Ziggo Tempesta Racing Porsche with 45 minutes to go, and triggered the race-changing final safety car.
Fourth went to the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo, ahead of the #59 Garage 59 McLaren, which put together a strong comeback drive after Dean MacDonald spun on the opening lap following contact at Turn 2 with Sorensen.
The #98 ROWE Racing BMW was sixth, ahead of the #17 GetSpeed AMG, #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, #111 CSA Racing McLaren and #3 Verstappen Racing entry.
It was a difficult European debut for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3, with both cars running into trouble. The #63 TGI Team by GRT entry suffered a puncture on its way to 39th overall, whilst the #96 Rutronik Racing car stopped on track multiple times before retiring.
Also in difficulty was the #18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, which picked up multiple penalties before retiring in the final hour, whilst AF Corse’s pair of Pro Ferrari 296 GT3 Evos failed to factor on their way to 14th and 19th respectively.
Silver Cup honours went to the #9 Pure Rxcing Porsche of Alex Malykhin, Max Hofer and Aleksei Nesov, after Nesov passed the #30 Team WRT BMW of Matisse Lismont following the final restart. The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin completed the podium.
The #65 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo enjoyed a long spell in the class lead early on, and was running second in the penultimate hour when contact with the #11 Aston Martin saw Maxime Oosten fall back to fifth.
And in Bronze, the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche claimed a dominant victory. Antares Au, Loek Hartog and Riccardo Pera were over one minute clear of the opposition before the late race safety car, having taken the lead in the third hour.
Second, from the back of the grid, went to the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, with the #991 Paradine Competition BMW third.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
