Akkodis ASP Wins Endurance Cup Title at Barcelona Finale

Akkodis ASP drivers Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella sealed the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup title by finishing fifth in a dramatic Barcelona season finale that Dinamic Motorsport won overall.

Despite not having the pace to challenge for the win, the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo scored enough points for its crew of factory drivers to beat Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco — who finished second in the race — by a slim two-point margin in the final standings.

Fuoco needed to take victory in the face of an Akkodis ASP fifth, but the No. 71 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 that the Italian shared with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Alessio Rovera came up 0.873 seconds short behind Dinamic’s winning  Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Klaus Bachler, Alessio Picariello and Matteo Cairoli.

At times during Sunday’s three-hour race, it looked as though Iron Lynx would manage to overcome Fuoco’s 10-point post-qualifying deficit to Akkodis ASP.

Pier Guidi started from pole and made an excellent start, building a substantial advantage over the No. 63 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Jack Aitken, who overtook Bachler for second at the first turn.

After the opening round of pit stops, Rovera held a seven-second lead over Aitken’s co-driver Albert Costa, while Gounon sat sixth in the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG following Juncadella’s opening stint.

Akkodis ASP lost touch with the front-runners after Juncadella getting caught up behind two McLaren 720S GT3s, with Gounon eventually overtaking Manuel Maldonado for fifth 20 minutes into his middle stint.

Leader Fuoco still had the upper hand in the championship stakes at that stage, however Costa and Picariello jointly erased Rovera’s advantage until the latter overtook the No. 71 Ferrari with a smart braking move into Turn 1.

Costa’s pass sparked jubilation in the Emil Frey garage, but that elation was short-lived as Iron Lynx completed its final stop three seconds quicker to retake the lead.

Moreover, Dinamic Motorsport’s decision to pit Piciariello on the preceding lap gave the Porsche squad an undercut advantage on both the Ferrari and the Lamborghini.

At the start of the last stint, Cairoli led Fuoco by four seconds, with Mirko Bortolotti third for Emil Frey, Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor fourth and Marciello fifth.

Fuoco was already closing on Cairoli when the safety car was brought out for the clearance of Barwell Motorsport’s Lamborghini, which had stopped due to a fire.

Cairoli controlled the restart and kept Fuoco at bay to secure Dinamic’s first win of the season, while Marciello stood firm in fifth to bank the championship alongside Gounon and Juncadella.

Aitken, Costa and Bortolotti completed the overall podium, while Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and late stand-in Ricardo Feller claimed fourth in WRT’s final race with Audi before the decorated Belgian squad enters a new chapter with BMW on Monday.

Nico Mueller, Frederic Vervisch and Valentino Rossi took sixth in WRT’s No. 46 Audi, ahead of Sainteloc Junior Team, AMG Team GetSpeed and the best of the ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3s.

Marciello, Gounon and Juncadella’s overall Endurance Cup title followed their victory in the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, and Marciello’s achievement of winning the GTWC Europe drivers’ championship that also factors in results from the Sprint Cup series.

Iribe Completes Transatlantic Title Mission

Brendan Iribe successfully completed his ambitious objective of winning the Endurance Cup titles in both GTWC Europe and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the same weekend.

After racing in Motul Petit Le Mans in the U.S. on Saturday evening, Iribe flew overnight to Spain and jumped into the Inception Racing McLaren for qualifying.

He ended up winning the inaugural Gold Cup title for Endurance Cup by finishing seventh alongside co-champions Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy.

Iribe lost ground early on after being turned around by Leipert Motorsport’s Isaac Tutumlu, which thrust the Iron Dames crew of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy into the race and championship lead.

The all-female crew looked set to capture the Gold Cup title until a mysterious technical failure occurred on their No. 83 Ferrari with just over 40 minutes remaining.

Inception had recovered to fourth by that time, but it dropped back to seventh when Schandorff experienced a left-rear puncture just after the restart.

Winward Racing took the provisional Gold Cup victory in dramatic circumstances after a touch from Lucas Auer sent leader Arjun Maini spinning off at the last chicane.

WRT won the Silver Cup class with its No. 30 Audi driven by Thomas Neubauer, Benjamin Goethe and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, who had already secured the class title before the season finale.

Garage 59 led most of the race with its No. 159 McLaren, but Neubauer moved past Dean MacDonald in the closing stint to take the win.

Dominik Baumann, Valentin Pierburg and Ian Loggie won the Pro-Am class in SPS Automotive Performance’s No. 20 Mercedes-AMG, but it was the AF Corse Ferrari trio of Andrea Bertolini, Louis Machiels and Stefano Costantini that won the championship.

RESULTS: 3H Barcelona (provisional)