Boguslavskiy Holds Off Costa to Win Valencia Race 1

Timur Boguslavskiy held off a charging Albert Costa to take Akkodis ASP Team’s fourth Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup win of the season at Valencia.

Boguslavski, driving the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, crossed the line just 0.380 seconds ahead of the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 after Costa chipped away at the gap in the second half of the race.

It marked the fourth Sprint Cup win of the year for Boguslavskiy and co-driver Raffaele Marciello after previous victories at Brands Hatch, Misano and Hockenheim.

Marciello started the race from the front row alongside the No. 66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Dennis Marschall.

While Marschall retained his lead, Marciello had to fight off a challenge from Emil Frey’s Thierry Vermeulen on the opening lap before the safety car intervened after a multi-car incident at Turn 1 that ended the race for the No. 30 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 27 Sainteloc Audi.

An extended opening stint from Marciello combined with a quicker pitstop from the Akkodis ASP crew ensured Boguslavskiy took the car over with a lead of some seven seconds over Costa’s No. 69 Ferrari, who needed to pass Nicolas Baert’s No. 12 Comtoyou Racing Audi to move to second place.

Costa would close in on the No. 88 Mercedes for the remainder of the race, reducing the gap to under a second at the start of the final lap.

The Spaniard proved unable to launch an overtaking attempt on Boguslavskiy and came home in second place, with Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi completing the top three aboard the No. 40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi.

Feller started the race from tenth on the grid, but a strong opening stint saw the Swiss driver complete multiple overtakes and move up to fifth before handing over to Drudi.

After emerging on track ahead of Christopher Haase’s No. 11 Audi, Drudi secured a podium finish by wrestling past Baert with 22 minutes to go.

The Belgian driver eventually finished fifth, with Haase and the No. 32 Team WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor also making their way through.

Giacomo Altoe picked up seventh place in the No. 14 Emil Frey Ferrari ahead of Maxime Martin’s No. 46 machine and Garage 59’s Benjamin Goethe.

Lorenzo Patrese completed the top ten aboard the No. 99 Audi he shares with Alex Aka, with the pair taking the Silver Cup class win ahead of Haupt Racing Team’s Alain Valente and Jordan Love in the process.

Dean MacDonald and Christian Klien were classified twelfth in the No. 111 JP Motorsport McLaren after a five-second penalty for track limits.

Patric Niederhauser and Erwan Bastard finished in 13th, while Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli took the No. 60 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to 14th in their first Sprint Cup start as a duo since 2019.

Finlay Hutchinson and Gilles Magnus completed the top 15, securing the Gold Cup victory.

In Bronze Cup, a second place in class for the No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R ensured Alex Malykhin will enter tomorrow’s race with a slim points lead over Henrique Chaves and Miguel Ramos, who finished third in class.

Malykhin, sharing the car with Ayhancan Guven, leapfrogged the Portuguese duo in the standings and holds 55 points heading into Sunday’s final Bronze Cup race, two points clear of the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren 720s GT3 Evo.

By converting overall pole to a class victory, Marschall and Andrey Mukovoz hold an outside shot at the title with 44,5 points.

RESULTS: Race 1