Gold Garage 59 McLaren Takes Outright Sprint Cup Win

The Gold Cup Garage 59 McLaren crew of Tom Fleming and Louis Prette took outright victory in the first GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup race at Zandvoort, while the overall points-leading WRT BMW retired.

The result marked the first outright podium of the season for either of Garage 59’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evos as the No. 58 duo boosted their class title hopes, but it was a race to forget for many of the crews in the overall championship fight with the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Morris Schuring and Dorian Boccolacci finishing as the top Pro car.

Fleming grabbed the lead at the start of the race, making the move through Turn 2 as the polesitting Boutsen VDS Porsche of Schuring was unable to maintain its advantage.

The Briton was then able to gradually pull away during the opening stint, enjoying a lead of just over two seconds by the time of the mandatory stops.

But the Porsche crew had a faster service when both cars stopped at the first opportunity as the pit window opened.

The two leaders entered the fast lane side by side with Prette just keeping the Porsche behind.

Prette had to defend hard from Boccolacci before edging slightly ahead as a Full Course Yellow was called when former overall points leader Kelvin van der Linde’s No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO ground to a halt with a water pressure problem to complete a miserable day for the squad after Charles Weerts had earlier only qualified the car 33rd.

Boccolacci closed back in upon the resumption but the tight and twisty nature of the Zandvoort circuit meant it was tricky for him to find a way ahead, with Prette eventually crossing the line 0.676 seconds ahead.

That difficulty overtaking was something Ricardo Feller was also experiencing behind as the Lionspeed GP Porsche battled with the similar Razoon – more than racing car of Simon Birch for third.

Feller made repeated attempts to try to get ahead but had a whole host of rivals queueing up behind to make it a six-car train in the battle for the final podium spot.

Ben Green in the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo sensed an opportunity and pounced into Turn 1 with five minutes to go to dive up the inside of both Feller and Birch.

The Briton then scampered clear to take a first podium of the year for the squad alongside Thierry Vermeuelen.

Feller therefore had to continue trying to prise a way ahead of the Porsche but ultimately failed thanks to some brilliant defending from Birch as the Razoon car took fourth after stepping up to the Pro class for this event, with Birch joined by Klaus Bachler.

Feller and Bastian Buus had to settle for fifth but they still moved into the overall points lead after the WRT BMW’s demise.

Chris Lulham was on a charge in the final stages after taking over the No. 3 Verstappen Racing 2 Seas-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from Dani Juncadella — who only qualified 27th — to grab sixth on the final lap.

Lulham’s late move relegated the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Neubauer — still feeling the effects of a collarbone injury — and Arthur Leclerc to seventh.

There was never really any question over who would top the Silver Cup division as WRT had something to celebrate with the No. 30 BMW of Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro taking the victory in ninth overall to also secure the category’s combined GTWC Europe title and could make it a hat-trick of crowns on Sunday by claiming the Sprint Cup glory, too.

Bronze Cup spoils went to the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche of Eddie Cheever III and Peter Dempsey as they took a first win of the season.

Augusto Farfus had led the class and ran fourth overall in the opening stint but Darren Leung lost out to Dempsey shortly after taking over the Paradine Competition BMW and fell ten seconds back, while the points-leading No. 87 Winward Mercedes-AMG of Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikov was third.

RESULTS: Race 1