ASP Wins at Nürburgring to Capture Endurance Points Lead

Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon moved into the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup points lead with a lights-to-flag victory in Sunday’s three-hour race at the Nürburgring.

The drivers of the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo converted their pole position into a second win of the year and maximum event points, while their ROWE Racing BMW rivals Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly failed to score.

Gounon held off fellow Mercedes-AMG factory ace Luca Stolz in the GetSpeed-run Al Manar Racing car throughout the final stint and went on to win by 1.9 seconds.

The result came after a pre-race Balance of Performance change that saw the Mercedes-AMGs receive an additional 10 kg compared to qualifying.

Stolz, Schiller and Maro Engel’s Mercedes-AMG finished 15.7 seconds up the road from Attempto Racing’s Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ricardo Feller, Mattia Drudi and Dennis Marschall that completed the podium.

Feller seized third by passing Rutronik Racing Porsche driver Thomas Preining into the Michael Schumacher S after an entertaining side-by-side battle over several corners.

Akkodis ASP led Sunday’s fully dry and Full Course Yellow-free contest from start to finish but its position came into doubt after the second and final round of pit stops.

Marciello made a strong start from pole, drawing clear of the carnage at Turn 1, and flew into a 15-second lead by the time he handed the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG to Boguslavskiy.

The drama included front-row starter Jordan Pepper being squeezed into Maximilian Goetz’s ASP Mercedes-AMG, which incurred right-rear damage, and contact between the points-leading ROWE BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Rutronik’s Dennis Olsen threaded his way through the commotion to rise from 11th to second, but an undercut approach from GetSpeed ensured that Schiller was ahead of the Norwegian’s co-driver Laurin Heinrich after the first round of stops.

Boguslavskiy initially maintained the 13-second margin over Schiller but the gap came down dramatically as the middle stint wore on.

By the time Schiller handed over to Stolz, Boguslavskiy was only four seconds ahead and the GetSpeed machine emerged within two seconds when Gounon stepped in.

Stolz, using his up-to-speed tires, initially looked like sizing up a passing attempt on Gounon but the opportunity quickly disappeared and the ASP car eked clear.

After being overtaken by Feller for third, Preining then came under pressure from another Audi Sport factory driver in Patric Niederhauser.

After several attempts, Niederhauser found a way past Preining with five minutes to go, securing fourth along with his Sainteloc Junior Team co-drivers Christopher Mies and Simon Gachet.

The Gold Cup-winning Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of David Schumacher, Miklas Born and Marius Zug took sixth after Dinamic GT’s No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R dropped to 10th after being docked 15 seconds for undercutting the minimum refueling time.

The highest-placed BMW was the No. 32 Team WRT car in seventh, but the former series-leading No. 98 ROWE Racing car ended up outside of the points in 15th.

Wittmann was involved in a clash with the front-row starting Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Pepper during the first stint, which resulted in the Iron Lynx driver spinning out of Turn 12 and making contact against the ROWE BMW.

Despite carrying on to the checkered flag, the No. 98 ROWE crew saw their seven-point lead over Marciello, Boguslavskiy and Gounon transform into an 18-point deficit.

Silver Cup honors went to the No. 85 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini trio of Benjamin Hites, Clemens Schmid and Glenn van Berlo who finished 4.6 seconds ahead of Tresor Attempto Racing’s Alex Aka.

Herberth Motorsport prevailed in Bronze Cup with its Porsche shared by Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn and late stand-in Tim Heinemann.

The list of category winners was completed by the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini of Dennis Lind and Rob Collard who took victory despite a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pits.

RESULTS: 3H Nürburgring