Marciello, Boguslavskiy Win Sprint Cup Opener from Pole

Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy won the opening round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season at Brands Hatch.

The Akkodis ASP pairing led from start to finish in their pole-sitting Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with Boguslavskiy crossing the line 0.6 seconds ahead of Ricardo Feller in the No. 40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II that was started by Mattia Drudi.

Marciello laid the groundwork for his and Boguslavskiy’s sixth Sprint Cup win together by charging into a substantial lead during the opening stint of the 60-minute contest.

The gap came down during Boguslavskiy’s turn behind the wheel, but the Russian driver stayed ahead of Feller to take an early lead in the Sprint Cup championship standings.

Mercedes-AMG factory ace Marciello drew almost eight seconds clear of Albert Costa in the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, while Drudi ran third ahead of Konsta Lappalainen in the other Ferrari and Dinamic GT Porsche driver Christian Engelhart.

Marciello stayed out until the end of the 10-minute pit window, handing over to Boguslavskiy who produced a trouble-free stint to bring home the victory.

After showing podium potential in the early stages, both Emil Frey Ferraris had slow pit stops with Costa’s co-driver Thierry Vermeulen emerging in fifth, one position ahead of Giacomo Altoe in the No. 14 car.

On the other hand, Team WRT performed a rapid turnaround of its No. 32 BMW M4 GT3, which rose from sixth to third after Charles Weerts pitted early in the window.

Weerts’ co-driver Dries Vanthoor initially put the pressure on Feller during the closing stint, but the Audi Sport factory driver kept his BMW counterpart at bay to secure second.

Adrien de Leener looked set to finish fourth for Dinamic GT, but the only Porsche 911 GT3 R in the field suddenly slowed out of the final corner after running out of fuel and ended up in eighth.

Dinamic was later disqualified for not having the required 2 kg of fuel in the tank during post-race checks.

The Porsche’s misfortune Christopher Haase to take fourth in the No. 11 Comtoyou Racing Audi after the German driver overtook both Emil Frey Ferraris.

Altoe came through in fifth, ahead of Franck Perera who got past Nicolas Baert, Vermeulen and an ailing De Leener to give Vincenzo Sospiri Racing a sixth-place result with its Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 that was also driven by Jordan Pepper.

Aurelien Panis and Alberto di Folco claimed Gold Cup honors in their No. 9 Boutsen VDS Audi which finished ninth overall.

Di Folco crossed the line one position ahead of the Silver Cup-winning Tresor Attempto Racing Audi shared by Alex Aka and Lorenzo Patrese.

The only car that didn’t reach the checkered flag was the No. 25 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi, which incurred damage after a collision with the No. 68 Nova Race Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 in the pits.

Sainteloc’s car driven by Patric Niederhauser and Erwan Bastard was handed a five-position grid drop for Race 2 after the French team was deemed to have caused the contact by releasing Niederhauser from his pit box in an unsafe manner.

The second race of the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup season starts at 4:10 p.m. local time (11:10 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Race 1 (provisional)