Marciello Secures Second Combined Drivers’ Title

Raffaele Marciello clinched the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS combined drivers’ title during last weekend’s Sprint Cup season finale at Valencia.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver established an insurmountable 28-point lead over Audi’s Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts, with a maximum of 26 points to be won at the final Endurance Cup round later this month.

Marciello becomes the first two-time GTWC Europe combined champion, after clinching the 2018 title during his Sprint Cup championship-winning season.

His successes have come between titles for Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli in 2019, Timur Boguslavskiy in 2020 and Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts last year.

The combined GTWC Europe competition accumulates points earned in the Sprint and Endurance championships.

Vanthoor and Weerts reduced Marciello’s lead in the combined standings by 12.5 points at Valencia, but it wasn’t enough to keep the title race alive at the Endurance Cup finale.

The WRT Audi duo nonetheless clinched their third consecutive GTWC Europe Sprint Cup drivers’ title by finishing third in Race 1, before Weerts made a dramatic last-lap charge to beat Aurelien Panis and Marciello’s co-driver Boguslavskiy for the Race 2 victory.

Akkodis ASP is in a strong position to add the GTWC Europe combined teams’ title to Marciello’s individual accolade, with the Endurance Cup-leading Mercedes-AMG squad sitting 16 points ahead of WRT.

In addition to Marciello’s overall combined championship, Team WRT’s Benjamin Goethe and Thomas Neubauer secured the combined Silver Cup drivers’ title at Valencia.

Goethe and Neubauer wrapped up the Endurance Cup Silver class with a round to spare alongside Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and then finished third in the Sprint Cup standings.

WRT has a comfortable 23-point buffer over Akkodis ASP in the combined Silver Cup teams’ leaderboard.

The combined Pro-Am drivers’ championship remains open heading into the 3 Hours of Barcelona.

Recently-confirmed two-time Sprint Cup champion Miguel Ramos leads the table by five points from AF Corse’s Andrea Bertolini and Louis Machiels.

The combined championship for Pro-Am teams has a wider gap, with AF Corse running 22 points clear of Ramos’ team Garage 59.

The Valencia meeting saw WRT clinch its record-extending ninth Sprint Cup teams’ title, beating Marciello’s Akkodis ASP squad by 140.5 points to 126.5.

AF Corse, which ran Sprint Cup Silver drivers’ champions Ulysse de Pauw and Pierre-Alexandre Jean, captured the Silver teams’ trophy in the 60-minute race series.

The Ferrari squad also won Pro-Am by a three-point margin over Garage 59, which had a single car in the class against two entries from AF Corse.

Three sets of Endurance Cup class titles are up for grabs at Barcelona, with the overall, Gold Cup and Pro-Am championships for both drivers and teams still open.