AF Corse Wins Brands Hatch Race 1 After Raft of Penalties

AF Corse took victory in the opening race of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch after a raft of post-race penalties mixed up the finishing order.

Thomas Neubauer had crossed the line in second place in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo that he shares with Arthur Leclerc, 6.264 seconds behind the No. Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Chris Lulham and Daniel Juncadella.

It appeared as though Lulham had overcome a 5-second time penalty for a pit stop infringement to win the race, until his No. 3 car was slapped with a drive through penalty for a yellow flag infringement. The Verstappen crew was eventually classified in 15th place.

AF Corse’s victory also marks the first podium finish and the first victory for Leclerc in GTWC competition.

A total of nine cars were hit with the same penalty, including both the No. 30 and the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, which were demoted to 16th and 17th, despite running in the top ten for all of the race.

The No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo inherited second place with Dorian Boccolacci at the wheel, with Team WRT’s No. 32 BMW of Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts finishing off the podium in third.

Team WRT’s sister No. 31 BMW came home in fourth place ahead of the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Matteo Cairoli and Konsta Lappalainen.

Maro Engel made a charge up the order in the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG that he shares with Lucas Auer. The pair had started the race in 15th place, but gradually fought through the pack to finish sixth.

The race was marred by an early red flag after the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Robin Knutsson had a dramatic crash on the opening lap.

Razoon – more than racing’s No. 914 Porsche nudged the No. 10 car from behind, causing it to spin hard into the Stirlings barrier. Driver Simon Birch was later given a 20 second stop-and-go penalty for the incident.

The pole-sitting No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche had led from the wave of the green flag with Ricardo Feller at the wheel.

The Swiss driver maintained his advantage when the race resumed, gradually pulling away from the No. 50 Ferrari of Leclerc and Neubauer.

The Lionspeed team decided to pit immediately after the pit stop window opened.

Meanwhile, the AF Corse’s No. 50 car took the lead with the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG of Juncadella close behind.

The Team Verstappen car succesfully overcut the AF Corse car, coming out ahead of the No. 50 Ferrari after the pit stops.

The No. 80 Lionspeed Porsche had cycled back up the order but began to rapidly lose positions after a few laps before eventually retiring with a suspected steering issue.

With the Team Verstappen Mercedes-AMG and the No. 50 Ferrari convincingly out front, a full-course yellow period placed Neubauer in the Ferrari just 0.6 seconds behind Lulham’s car.

The Ferrari was unable to overtake the Team Verstappen car, with Lulham edging out a healthy lead despite his five-second penalty only for the later raft of sanctions to mix up the order.

The No. 9 Pure Rxcing Porsche of Aleksei Nesov and Aliaksandr Malykin was promoted to the Silver Cup spoils in seventh, while the Gold Cup glory went to the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Tommaso Mosca and Matias Zagazeta that was eighth overall.

The second hour-long race of the weekend kicks off at 3:45 p.m. local time on Sunday (10:45 a.m ET).