Barcelona Post-Race Notebook

***Akkodis ASP earned its first Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup drivers’ and teams’ titles, adding to its Am Cup success in 2015 and its Silver Cup title in 2019. Factoring in the GT4 European Series Pro-Am, Am and Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series titles, team principal Jerome Policand described the Barcelona weekend as “something special” for the French outfit.

***Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella all became first-time Endurance Cup champions, and Mercedes-AMG’s first series champions since 2018.

***With its 3 Hours of Barcelona victory, Dinamic Motorsport continued its record of winning a race in each of its four Endurance Cup seasons to date.

***The Italy-based Porsche squad drew level with Grasser Racing Team and M-Sport for overall Endurance Cup wins. They are behind only Marc VDS, which has six wins, and Team WRT which has seven.

***The 2022 season marked the fifth consecutive Endurance Cup campaign in which every race had a different outright winner.

***Klaus Bachler and Matteo Cairoli chalked up their third career Endurance Cup wins, all of which have come with Dinamic. Alessio Picariello, meanwhile, became a first-time winner in the series.

***Antonio Fuoco thanked his Iron Lynx team and congratulated Akkodis ASP’s champions after missing out on the Endurance Cup title by two points. “We knew that arriving this weekend would not be easy for us, especially on this track, but I think we did the maximum” Fuoco told Sportscar365.

***The collapse of the No. 71 Ferrari’s lead during the middle stint was caused by Iron Lynx raising tire pressures in response to extreme wear on Alessandro Pier Guidi’s starting set of Pirellis. The conservative approach saw Alessio Rovera lose a seven-second lead to Albert Costa.

***Costa showed high emotion when he returned to the Emil Frey Racing pits after bringing the No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo into the final round of stops as the leading car. The Spaniard returned to applause from the crew and struck a piece of the temporary garage interior with his hand as he celebrated.

***Costa told SRO pit reporter Gemma Scott: “For me, this means a lot. This year I have struggled a lot to show my true potential.” Sportscar365 understands that Costa is set to switch from Lamborghini to another GT3 manufacturer next year.

***Joy quickly gave way to disappointment, however, as Iron Lynx jumped Emil Frey in the pits to undo Costa’s overtake on Rovera. An Emil Frey spokesperson told Sportscar365 that the car failed to restart immediately, costing it around three seconds.

***Despite missing out on the win, Emil Frey Racing filed its best result of the season in third. The Swiss team has struggled with tire dramas this year, including multiple punctures, but had a clean race as it battled against Iron Lynx and Dinamic for the win.

***While Akkodis ASP didn’t show sustained pace to keep with the podium contenders, Raffaele Marciello posted the fastest lap with a time of 1:46.618 during the final stint.

***The No. 12 Tresor by Car Collection Audi was on course for a points finish until Mattia Drudi pulled into the pits unscheduled during the final stint. According to the team, the Audi incurred a broken engine block and oil leakage, most likely after heavy contact with a curb.

***The other Pro-class Audi to retire was the No. 66 Attempto Racing car. Contact between Kim-Luis Schramm and Emil Frey Lamborghini driver Leo Roussel in the opening stint caused both parties to exit the race. Attempto incurred steering damage, while Emil Frey had a broken rear suspension.

***Attempto Racing boss Arkin Aka told Sportscar365 that his team intends to return to GTWC Europe next year with Audi, and is looking to add a second R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to its DTM program.

***The smoky retirement of the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo was caused by an engine failure, the team confirmed post-race. Barwell is set to continue with Lamborghini next year when the manufacturer introduces its upgraded EVO2 model.

***Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and Brendan Iribe became the first McLaren crew to win an Endurance Cup title since Shane van Gisbergen, Rob Bell and Come Ledogar prevailed overall for Garage 59 six years ago.

***While AF Corse’s No. 52 crew won the Endurance Cup Pro-Am drivers’ title, the corresponding teams’ championship went to race winner SPS Automotive Performance. SPS kept the points earned by Dominik Baumann at Spa, despite the Austrian renouncing them from his individual haul so that he could be eligible for the final classification alongside Bronze-rated Valentin Pierburg.

***Valentino Rossi described his opening stint in the No. 46 WRT Audi has his best of the season. “I did a good start and was able to gain two positions,” said the multiple MotoGP champion. “I was the last of the train, but I stayed all stint with the Pro drivers.”

***Rossi’s co-driver Nico Mueller was involved in a collision with the No. 56 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche, as the latter attempted to reach the pits only to find the side of Mueller’s Audi, which was on the inside. The stewards decided not to impose any penalties.

***Rossi, Mueller and Frederic Vervisch ended up 16th in the overall Endurance Cup standings.

***FIA World Endurance Championship driver Claudio Schiavoni got behind the wheel of a Pagani Huayra R for the GT1 Sports Club by Curbstone sessions. Schiavoni was also supporting the Iron Lynx team that he drives for in GTE.

***The No. 87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG had 10 seconds added to its final race time after Tomasso Mosca was penalized for turning Herberth Motorsport’s No. 911 Porsche into a spin at the last chicane. The rotation for Robert Renauer caused Herberth to lose the Gold Cup lead, and a potential shot at the title if Inception lost more places. Mosca’s car was classified 22nd.

***Akkodis ASP won the Endurance Cup teams’ championship with 97 points, seven more than Iron Lynx in second.

***WRT overtook ROWE Racing for third in the Endurance Cup teams’ classification, after finishing fourth in the race with its No. 32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Ricardo Feller.

***WRT didn’t feature in the battle for the win, although it gained positions in its final race with Audi. Weerts ran eighth in the first hour, before WRT rose to sixth in the pits and late stand-in Feller overtook Gounon and Nicolaj Kjaergaard early into his stint.

***Weerts called it an “emotional” race to cap WRT’s relationship with Audi. “We did everything we could to get at least a podium finish, but it is very difficult to overtake here with the understeer you get when you are close to the car in front,” he said. “Still, it was a good race, with no mistakes.”

***ROWE Racing’s BMW M4 GT3s struggled to challenge at the front of the field, as the German squad finished ninth and 13th. “The last two circuits this season really did not suit our BMW M4 GT3 and its vehicle characteristics,” said team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf. “Unfortunately, we were unable to overtake cars on the track even if they were nearly one second slower.”

***WRT unloaded its pair of new BMW M4 GT3s, one black and one white, into the Barcelona pit garages on Sunday evening, a few hours after the checkered flag.

***Monday’s unofficial post-season test also included appearances from Akkodis ASP, Madpanda Motorsport, 2 Seas Motorsport, Garage 59 and Dinamic Motorsport. Sainteloc Junior Team elected not to take part after initially planning to run one of its Audis.