Engel Has “No Regrets” After Missing Out on First 24H Spa Win

Mercedes-AMG factory driver Maro Engel has “no regrets” after narrowly missing out on a first victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

The runner-up spot this year aboard the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo represented a second podium for the German in 11 attempts on the Belgian classic, but Engel believes that he and co-drivers Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer could have done nothing more in the pursuit of victory.

“On any given day you can only try to bring your best game, and that’s what we did as a team, and it wasn’t quite enough,” Engel told Sportscar365 after finishing second to the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo by just 12.3 seconds.

“We can be satisfied with what we brought to the table: we had a great race and scored some very important points.

“We can be very proud of the race we ran, we had as close as you can get to the perfect race — no penalties, no issues and only one small contact.

“We fought very hard and gave it everything, so we can have no regrets — I’m very happy with our race.”

The pressure Engel and his teammates were under for much of the second half of the race, he said, made second place “even more satisfying.”

“We soaked up a lot of pressure; clearly I think everyone could see that other cars had more pace, but we were able to hold them off,” he explained.

A 24H Spa victory for Engel would have bolstered a resume that includes the majority of the big prizes in the GT3 arena.

“It would have been great to win what I consider the Triple Crown of GT3 endurances races with the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Nürburgring 24 and the 24H Spa in one year,” he added.

“But wins at Bathurst and the ‘Ring and then second at Spa, and also second in GTD Pro in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, isn’t bad.”

Those Bathurst and Nurburgring successes combined with his runner-up spot at Spa mean Engel has built a 17-point lead over Stolz in the Intercontinental GT Challenge standings, while he and Auer also top the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS table.

When asked whether he had concerns that he would never win the 24H Spa, Engel replied: “I’ll come back next year, try again and give it everything.

“We all know this is a very tough race to win and a tough race to get through unscathed.”

Engel also revealed that his final stint in the car was cut short by cramp in his right leg.

“Our biggest scare came in my last stint where I got cramp in my right calf and was struggling to press the accelerator,” he explained.

“I was screaming in the car trying to hold the pedal flat up to Turn 5 [Les Combes].

“Fortunately I was able to drive the rest of the lap with a bit less pain before coming into the pits to hand over early to Luca. That was a bit of an episode.”