Aston Scores Unexpected Win in Dramatic Paul Ricard Opener

The No. 007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi scored an unlikely victory in the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS at Paul Ricard after a late safety car cost the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer a dominant win.

The Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter entry’s biggest threat seemingly came at the start of the six-hour contest when the lights went green very early and polesitter Engel was attacked by Benjamin Goethe in the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

But Engel withstood that attack and quickly built a lead after an early safety car following a nasty first-lap incident on the pit straight when the No. 555 CSA Racing McLaren of Baptistie Moulin and the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 Evo of Robin Knutsson both had sizeable impacts with the wall.

Engel, Stolz and Auer controlled the race thereafter until a safety car in the final hour caused by the No. 93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche coming to a halt turned the contest on its head.

The Aston’s prospects of a good result had appeared slim when it suffered a puncture in the first hour and had to make an early pitstop with the team unprepared, which put in on a strategy that was off kilter to the rest of the frontrunners.

However, the trio of factory drivers displayed strong pace throughout and were able to move into the runner-up spot at the time of the late caution.

Auer’s lead over Thiim was four seconds upon the restart with 25 minutes to go but the Aston soon whittled that down to nothing before an error from Auer at the end of the Mistral Straight with six laps to go sent the Mercedes-AMG wide and the Aston pounced, eventually winning by 0.806 seconds to take the first series victory for an Aston in nearly two years.

There was a time when Mercedes-AMGs threatened to occupy all three spots on the podium but the No. 17 GetSpeed machine and No. 3 Verstappen Racing-badged 2 Seas car were not able to match the pace of the lead Winward entry.

Both cars were passed in a sensational double move on the Mistral Straight in the second hour when Thomas Preining in the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche capitalized upon an unwell Jules Gounon launching off a kerb and going flying as he passed Maxime Martin in the GetSpeed car.

However, the Lionspeed Porsche was denied the chance to close on the leader when it picked up a steering problem in the fourth hour that Ricardo Feller described as leaving the car “undrivable.”

Despite its demise, the other two Mercedes-AMGs were not able to profit and both plummeted down the order with the No. 17 finishing seventh and the No. 3 tenth.

Instead it was the No. 58 McLaren of Goethe, Louis Prette and Tom Fleming that rounded out the podium having led the Gold Cup division throughout.

The BMW M4 GT3 EVOs came on stronger once darkness fell and the best of the Bavarian machines, the No. 32 WRT car of reigning champions Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts paired with new recruit Jordan Pepper, finished fourth.

Another crew to seemingly benefit from the late safety car was the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Alessio Picariello, Dorian Boccolacci and Morris Schuring that was able to pit during the full-course yellow, after adopting a very different strategy having stopped early on, and was therefore able to rise to fifth.

However, it then fell back to eighth in the closing stages and instead rounding out the top five was the second of the Garage 59 McLarens, the No. 59 car of Dean Macdonald, Joseph Loake and Marvin Kirchhoefer that made a remarkable comeback after being tipped into a spin by Sorensen at the second corner and dropping to 54th.

Sixth was the next of the BMWs, the ROWE Racing entry of Augusto Farfus, Jake Dennis and Raffaele Marciello.

Further back, the No. 18 Comtoyou Aston in which Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll was making his GT3 debut had already picked up a raft of penalties with Mari Boya and Roberto Merhi at the controls before Stroll climbed aboard during the night and set some respectable lap times but could only manage 48th.

It was also a tough European debut for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 with both cars suffering multiple problems and the best of the Italian machines finished up 40th, while the Rutronik entry failed to finish.

There was some joy for Rutronik in the Bronze Cup division, however, as the class was comfortably topped by the No. 97 Rutronik Porsche of Antares Au, Loek Hartog and Riccardo Pera that assumed control at mid-distance and finished nine places clear of the opposition in 13th overall.

The Silver Cup was the most tightly contested of the other classes and it had been controlled by the No. 65 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang GT3 Evo for the first half but it was eventually the No. 9 Pure Rxcing Porsche of Aleksei Nesov, Aliaksandr Malykhin and Max Hofer that pipped the No. 30 WRT BMW to the spoils. This was after the front-running No. 21 Comtoyou Aston had a penalty for a short pitstop and the No. 5 Optimum McLaren suffered gearbox woes.

RESULTS: Race