JP McLaren Inherits Gold Cup Win After Winward Penalty

JP Motorsport has inherited the Gold Cup class win at the 3 Hours of Barcelona after Winward Racing picked up a post-race time penalty for causing a final-lap collision.

The No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo had 30 seconds added to its final race time after Lucas Auer made contact with class leader and fellow DTM driver Arjun Maini at the chicane on the last lap, causing the Haupt Racing Team driver to spin into a barrier.

The penalty has handed Gold Cup honors to Norbert Siedler, Maciej Blazek and JP Motorsport team owner Patryk Krupinski, who shared the No. 112 McLaren 720S GT3 in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season finale.

Auer, Lorenzo Ferrari and Jens Liebhauser have consequently dropped to sixth in Gold Cup, and 33rd overall after their Mercedes-AMG crossed the finish line first in class and 22nd in the outright field.

A stewards’ report detailing the incident stated that Auer accepted responsibility for pushing Maini off the road, with the Austrian describing his maneuver as a “rookie error”.

Behind JP Motorsport, Team WRT has assumed second in class with its No. 33 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Ryuichiro Tomita, Maxime Robin and Arnold Robin.

Third in class has gone to the Herberth Motorsport Porsche crew of Robert Renauer, Alfred Renauer and Ralf Bohn who took the class lead when the Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 suddenly ground to a halt in the last hour.

However, the Herberth car went on to lose several positions when it was spun around at the final chicane by Tommaso Mosca with just over 20 minutes to go.

Mosca received a 10-second post-race penalty for that incident, dropping the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG from ninth to 10th in Silver Cup.

Furthermore, Herberth’s Porsche 911 GT3 R had a five-second penalty hanging over it for Bohn’s responsibility over an incident with the No. 56 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche.

The Winward penalty has no bearing on the inaugural Gold Cup championship, which went to Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and Brendan Iribe.

RESULTS: 3H Barcelona (final)