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GT World Challenge Europe

Black Falcon Wins Race 2 at Brands Hatch

Maro Engel, Luca Stolz victorious in second Blancpain GT race at Brands Hatch…

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Maro Engel and Luca Stolz went one better than their runner-up finish in Race 1 at Brands Hatch to win the second round of Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe at the Kent track on Sunday afternoon.

The Black Falcon drivers started from third position and were the highest-placed of the series frontrunners on the grid, which had been mixed up by an unusual qualifying session.

It left Fabien Schiller (AKKA ASP) and Nick Foster (Attempto Racing) on the front row, and the former remained out front for the entirety of his opening stint.

A loss of several positions in the pit stops prevented Silver Cup-entered Schiller and Timur Boguslavskiy from giving AKKA ASP its second win of the day after Nico Bastian and Thomas Neubauer, also running in the Silver Cup, claimed the Race 1 win.

Stolz exited the pits in the lead for Black Falcon, making up two positions in the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 he took over from Engel.

The German was followed by Vincent Abril in AKKA ASP but the Monegasque driver’s No. 88 AKKA ASP Mercedes stopped on track with 15 minutes remaining forcing him and Raffaele Marciello to retire.

This allowed Andrea Caldarelli to inherit second, a position he held onto until the checkered flag, scoring his and Marco Mapelli’s second podium of the season after a similar result in the Endurance Cup race at Monza. 

Steijn Schothorst completed the podium in the Attempto Racing Audi that he took over from second-place starter Foster.

A crash ten minutes into the race brought out a Full Course Yellow and safety car period and took several cars out of contention.

Frederic Vervisch was spun by David Perel while trying to overtake Hugo de Sadeleer, resulting in several cars, including Vervisch’s Phoenix Racing Audi, sustaining heavy damage.

Christopher Haase, Andrea Bertolini, Rik Breukers and Dries Vanthoor were also caught up in the incident, and Perel was given a drive-through penalty for causing it.

Christian Engelhart, who started from the back of the field, was also awarded a drive-through penalty after a collision with Phil Keen, although his co-driver Mirko Bortolotti was able to salvage a tenth-place finish.

Keen and Hiroshi Hamaguchi survived the incident and finished 14th, winning the Pro-Am Cup for Orange 1 FFF Racing Team.

Bastian finished eighth overall but in the lead of the Silver Cup, allowing him and Neubauer to take their second class win of the weekend for AKKA ASP.

RESULTS: Race 2

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.

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