ASP Defends Endurance Cup Title; Ferrari Takes Barcelona 1-2

Raffaele Marciello and Jules Gounon won a second consecutive Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup title with the Akkodis ASP team by finishing fifth in the 3 Hours of Barcelona alongside co-champion Timur Boguslavskiy.

The drivers of the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo kept their title rivals in the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 behind them for the entire contest to successfully protect an 18-point lead heading into the weekend.

Alessio Rovera, Robert Shwartzman and Nicklas Nielsen won the fifth and final round of the Endurance Cup season in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 after the No. 777 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG had five seconds added to its final race time.

GetSpeed finished first on the road but dropped to fourth after the checkered flag due to a penalty that was conceded on the first lap and issued during a late safety car.

Maro Engel turned front-row starter Jordan Pepper around, causing the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO to enter the Turn 3 gravel.

GetSpeed led the final two-thirds of the race after overcoming both AF Corse Ferraris at the first round of pit stops, but the penalty denied it a first Endurance Cup win.

Rovera controlled an eventful opening stint ahead of Daniel Serra in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari, with Engel in third after his contact with Pepper.

The Italian was unable to build a gap for Shwartzman to inherit because of two safety car periods, the first caused by debris from the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3’s rear bodywork and an errant tire from the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

The second safety car came when Pure Rxcing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R stopped after being spun around by its Herberth Motorsport stablemate, and was swiftly followed by another FCY when Valentino Rossi beached his WRT BMW in the Turn 11 gravel.

That meant the leaders made their first pit stops under FCY conditions, during which GetSpeed’s Mercedes-AMG jumped ahead of both Ferraris.

Shwartzman, who got caught up behind the CLRT Porsche exiting his pit box, initially put pressure on Fabian Schiller but the GetSpeed driver increased the gap to almost five seconds towards the end of an incident-free middle hour.

Despite dropping 10 seconds to the leader, Timur Boguslavskiy kept the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG in third after Marciello made up five positions in the opening stint and ASP gained a further place during the pit cycle.

The closing stint matched the first in terms of interruption, with a half-hour safety car breaking the race’s rhythm after the No. 40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II dropped oil throughout the final sector.

After a brief green flag spell, the safety car returned when the No. 56 Dinamic GT Porsche found the barriers at the end of the Turn 3 gravel.

That left only 10 minutes on the clock for Stolz to gap Nielsen by five seconds to negate his car’s penalty, but the AF Corse driver remained within range to lead a Ferrari 1-2.

Fuoco, Serra and Davide Rigon took second, ahead of the Rutronik Racing Porsche driven by Thomas Preining, Laurin Heinrich and Dennis Olsen who also benefited.

Behind the penalized GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG and the title-winning ASP car was the No. 54 Dinamic GT Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, Sven Mueller and Christian Engelhart.

Maximilian Goetz, Lorenzo Ferrari and Thomas Drouet took seventh in the other ASP Mercedes-AMG, followed by the Pro-class McLaren from Garage 59.

ROWE Racing’s title hopefuls Philipp Eng, Nick Yelloly and Marco Wittmann scored a single point as they completed the top 10 behind Audi squad Sainteloc Junior Team.

The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa winners needed a disaster for the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG to have any chance of sealing the title, but the ASP trio delivered a consistent drive.

In addition to winning the Endurance Cup, Marciello and Boguslavskiy sealed the overall GTWC Europe drivers’ title with one Sprint Cup event still to run.

Boutsen Holds Off Winward in Gold Cup

Gold Cup honors went to the Boutsen VDS Audi of Alberto di Folco, Aurelien Panis and Adam Eteki who held off both Winward Racing Mercedes-AMGs to take victory.

However, it was the Comtoyou Racing Audi duo of Nicolas Baert and Maxime Soulet who secured the Endurance Cup class title despite finishing fifth with a penalty.

Grasser Racing Team posted a dominant 1-2 in Silver Cup with its pair of Lamborghinis, with the second-placed lineup of Glenn van Berlo, Clemens Schmid and Benjamin Hites emerging as champions.

Sixth place was enough for Sky-Tempesta Racing’s Eddie Cheever, Chris Froggatt and Jonathan Hui to secure the Bronze Cup crown despite their title rivals finishing ahead in the race.

And ST Racing with Rinaldi took its first Pro-Am victory with its Ferrari driven by Lorcan Hanafin, Samantha Tan and Isaac Tutumlu. Car Collection Motorsport sealed the Pro-Am drivers’ title at the penultimate round of the season.

RESULTS: 3H Barcelona (provisional)