Green, Vermeulen Triumph in Race 2 in Emil Frey Ferrari

Ben Green and Thierry Vermeulen scored a first GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup win for Emil Frey Racing for over two years in the second race at Zandvoort.

A charging first stint from Green gave the No. 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo the lead and Vermeulen was able to keep his rivals at bay to triumph by 3.700 seconds after the pair finished third in the weekend’s first race.

Green had qualified third but he immediately jumped Louis Prette in the Gold Cup Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo — that won on Saturday — at the start.

The Briton then closed on the sister No. 14 Ferrari of polesitter Konsta Lappalainen and was able to grab the lead as Green reacted far quicker to the end of a Full Course Yellow caution.

Green quickly streaked clear and finished the opening stint with a lead of over 4.5 seconds as Lappalainen fell back into the clutches of Prette.

Behind, Ricardo Feller was on a charge in the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo and, after spending several laps behind the Gold Cup No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Matias Zagazeta, eventually got ahead into fourth with a move at Tarzan shortly before the stops.

A faster stop then enabled Bastian Buus to emerge from the pits in second, having jumped both the McLaren and the second Emil Frey Ferrari.

While Vermeulen continued to enjoy an advantage of over four seconds, Matteo Cairoli in the No. 14 Ferrari closed onto Buus’ tail with 15 minutes to go.

But Buus was able to resist the initial pressure from Cairoli and went on to finish 1.564 seconds clear to move the Lionspeed pair back into the points lead.

Fourth place went to the best of the WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, the No. 46 machine of Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi that was another car to gain places during the stops.

Behind, there were a frantic few laps for Tom Fleming after he took over the McLaren from Prette: first he clashed with the No. 31 WRT BMW of Amaury Cordeel, spinning the latter into Turn 3, then on the next lap Fleming made contact with Tommaso Mosca aboard the No. 51 Ferrari as they battled for the Gold lead.

The Ferrari had emerged from the pit lane just ahead but Fleming immediately dived through before then robustly defending from Mosca.

However, Fleming was given a 10-second stop-and-hold penalty for the contact with Cordeel that dropped the McLaren down to 25th and ensured Gold Cup points leaders Zagazeta and Mosca took the class win.

The Pro No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Neubauer and Arthur Leclerc passed the sister Gold car late on to take fifth, while the No. 96 Rutronik Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Patric Niederhauser and Luca Engstler was seventh.

It was a tough contest for the two crews that led the overall standings heading into the race.

Dani Juncadella in the No. 3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was only ninth while the No. 32 WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts had another race to forget as they progressed from 27th to 15th.

The pole-sitting No. 21 Comtoyou Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Oliver Soderstrom and Arthur Dorison took the Silver Cup glory.

However, they had fallen behind the No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren of Mikey Porter at the start, with the latter building an advantage.

But Guilherme Oliveira had a gear selection problem after climbing aboard in the stops and struggled to get going again, enabling the Aston pair to triumph.

Second in class for the No. 30 WRT BMW of Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont was enough for the pair to complete a hat-trick of titles, winning the Endurance, combined and now the Sprint crowns.

There was a double Zandvoort class win in the Bronze division for Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever III aboard the No. 93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche that has moved to the top of the table.

Dempsey had jumped polesitter Charles Dawson in the No. 222 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG at the start and never lost the net class lead thereafter.

RESULTS: Race 2