Feller, Drudi Charge to Second Win of Sprint Cup Season

Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi each made a pass for the lead en route to claiming their second win of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season at Hockenheim.

Drudi brought Attempto Racing’s Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to the line 6.6 seconds ahead of Nicolas Baert after overtaking the Comtoyou Racing driver down the inside at the Turn 8 left-hander with 18 minutes of the one-hour contest remaining.

The crucial move came after Baert’s Audi, started by Frederic Vervisch, undercut Tresor Orange 1 and the pole-sitting VSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 during the pit stops.

Feller, who qualified second, led going into the mid-race pit window shortly after charging around the outside of Lamborghini driver Jordan Pepper through Turn 1.

The stewards investigated the move for a possible track limits breach from Feller out of the final turn that enabled him to draw alongside Pepper. No penalty was awarded before the end of the race and the result was later made official.

By adding to their victory at the Brands Hatch curtain-raiser, Feller and Drudi injected new life into their Sprint Cup season after struggling with gear-shifting issues at Misano.

It also came after the Audis received a 10 kg weight increase in a post-qualifying Balance of Performance change.

The pole-sitting VSR Lamborghini fell out of the points with eight minutes to go when Franck Perera, who was running fourth, encountered a left-rear puncture.

Dries Vanthoor overtook Perera early in the second stint but came under pressure from Emil Frey Racing Ferrari driver Thierry Vermeulen who was the first to benefit from Perera’s problem.

Vermeulen, whose co-driver Albert Costa started 13th, muscled past Vanthoor on the inside through the final double right-hander to snatch third position on the final lap.

Vanthoor and Charles Weerts settled for fourth but closed the gap to points leaders Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy who retired after early contact at Turn 7.

Boguslavskiy said that he struck a car from behind after it checked up to avoid an incident in front.

The first quarter of the race included several incidents, including an early safety car after Jim Pla’s Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was left stranded following contact with a CLRT Porsche 911 GT3 R.

There was also a Full Course Yellow period and subsequent safety car to manage an accident involving three cars including the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini.

Calan Williams and Niklas Kruetten completed the top five and won the Gold Cup class in their No. 30 WRT BMW M4 GT3 after holding off the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Audi.

Silver Cup honors went to Haupt Racing Team’s Jordan Love and Alain Valente, while Andrey Mukovoz won in Bronze Cup alongside his Attempto Racing Audi factory co-driver Dennis Marschall who reached as high as third overall in the opening stint.

Mukovov initially lost the Bronze lead to Ralf Bohn, but the Attempto driver fought back to finish four-tenths ahead of the Herberth Motorsport Porsche.

RESULTS: Race 1 (provisional)