Vanthoor, Weerts Clinch Third Sprint Title With Valencia Podium

Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts clinched their third consecutive Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup title by finishing third in the penultimate race of the season at Valencia.

The Team WRT pairing established an insurmountable 18-point gap to their challengers Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy, who finished seventh, to seal the championship with one race to spare.

Silver Cup drivers Ulysse de Pauw and Pierre-Alexandre Jean won Saturday’s 60-minute contest in their AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, despite a post-qualifying Balance of Performance change that gave all cars except the Ferraris and Audis a 10 kg break.

Weerts started from second on the grid but dropped behind Tresor by Car Collection Audi driver Simon Gachet at the opening corner.

De Pauw led from Gachet and Weerts through an early safety car period, caused by an accident for the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Weerts put the pressure on Gachet during the opening stint, but appeared hesitant to make a risky move that could have impacted his and Vanthoor’s title bid while De Pauw set off into a six-second lead.

Car Collection and WRT gained ground on AF Corse during the mid-race pit window, with Jean’s advantage less than two seconds after the driver changes shook out.

However, the Frenchman kept Gachet’s co-driver Christopher Haase and Vanthoor at bay to secure his and De Pauw’s second victory of the year, which also moves the AF Corse pairing up to third in the overall Sprint Cup table.

Further back in the field, it was an uphill battle for Marciello and Boguslavskiy who arrived into Race 1 with an 11.5-point deficit to Vanthoor and Weerts in the standings.

Their cause was hindered by Boguslavskiy qualifying down in 16th, before receiving a three-place grid drop due to his accrual of three behavior warning points, the most recent one earned by impeding the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3.

Boguslavskiy claimed a handful of positions during the first stint, while Marciello exited the pits in 11th place.

The Swiss driver accessed the top 10 when his Akkodis ASP teammate Tristan Vautier was spun into the gravel by JP Motorsport’s Vincent Abril at Turn 8.

He was then given a chance to make further progress when a second safety car period occurred with 12 minutes remaining, after Ezequiel Companc’s Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG crashed out due to a suspension issue.

However, Marciello became stuck behind Sainteloc Junior Team’s Patric Niederhauser for several laps and only moved clear with three minutes to go.

A move past fellow Akkodis ASP driver Thomas Drouet yielded eighth, while a 10-second post-race time penalty for Abril handed Marciello seventh place but this wasn’t enough to keep the championship fight alive.

A sixth-place result for the No. 89 Akkodis ASP pairing would have left the championship mathematically open heading into the final race of the season.

Benjamin Goethe and Thomas Neubauer finished fourth in their Silver-class WRT Audi, which ran seventh in the opening stint before gaining three spots in the pits.

Goethe held off Attempto Racing Audi driver Dennis Marschall at the end, while Mattia Drudi and Luca Ghiotto claimed sixth in the No. 12 Tresor by Car Collection Audi.

Miguel Ramos and Dean MacDonald sealed the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup Pro-Am title with a race to spare despite finishing fourth and last in class on Saturday.

The Garage 59 pairing fell back in the race order after late contact with the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari of their main championship rivals Andrea Bertolini and Louis Machiels.

Bertolini crossed the line in third, leaving MacDonald and Ramos with a mathematically secure 18-point margin in the class standings.

Christian Klien and Patryk Krupinski won the Pro-Am race in their JP Motorsport McLaren.

With De Pauw and Jean already confirmed as the Silver Cup champions prior to the Valencia weekend, it leaves all three drivers’ titles wrapped up before the final race of the season, although the team’s championship remains open between WRT and ASP.

RESULTS: Race 1