Nürburgring Post-Race Notebook

***Jules Gounon notched up his sixth career Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup victory, equaling Maxime Martin’s long-held record.

***Gounon said after the result: “In this race, the car was one of the best I have driven during my three years with Mercedes-AMG.”

***Akkodis ASP team principal Jerome Policand hailed Raffaele Marciello as a “special” driver after the Swiss-Italian launched the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo into a 15-second opening-stint lead that set it on course for victory. “People must admit that Lello was a loss for Formula 1, but for us he was a gift,” Policand told Sportscar365.

***Policand also praised Timur Boguslavskiy’s middle stint, as the Silver-rated driver kept ASP in front despite the gap coming down in the latter stages. “Timur came back in the game since Misano,” he said. “At Spa, he had one or two good stints but he was up and down. This weekend, he was perfect. In the wet, he qualified well.”

***ASP became the first Mercedes-AMG team to win the Endurance Cup round at the Nürburgring since HTP Motorsport in 2013, ending a streak of five races won by cars from other manufacturers.

***The No. 46 Team WRT BMW BM4 GT3 retired due to radiator damage caused by contact with the back of Tresor Attempto Racing’s Bronze Cup Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. The hit caused the BMW to lose water and oil pressure, while temperatures skyrocketed.

***Maxime Martin, who was driving the No. 46 BMW at the time of the incident, was critical of lapped drivers’ awareness to blue flags: “Naturally we had expected the weekend to go differently, retiring after a collision with a lapped car is disappointing. The blue flags were waving but no one took any notice of them. As long as there is no punishment for that, similar accidents will continue to occur. That is a great shame.”

***Ricardo Feller was upbeat about Tresor Orange 1 claiming its first podium of the Endurance Cup season. “[We had] the bad luck in Paul Ricard, at Spa it wasn’t ideal at the end, and Misano was a bad weekend for us, so we’re happy,” he told Sportscar365. “Finally brought home a podium without technical issues or anything.”

***Feller also enjoyed the close battle with Rutronik Racing’s Thomas Preining, who put up a stern resistance in the battle for third. “It was cool,” said the Audi driver. “I had some fights already with Thomas in DTM. Hard fights but fair – that’s exactly what we want.”

***Preining’s starting co-driver Dennis Olsen made a lightning start, vaulting from 11th to second by keeping out of trouble at Turn 1. “In front, I saw that cars were coming together,” Olsen told Sportscar365. “I had one Merc inside, and I got sandwiched a bit, but I still got through the corner and suddenly I was P3.”

***Olsen added that the drivers of the Rutronik Porsche 911 GT3 R “pushed like hell” throughout the race, which ran without Full Course Yellow or safety car interruptions. “Initially I thought I could catch the Merc, because I was quicker,” he reckoned. “It was quite clear that they were not showing everything they had.”

***The last Endurance Cup race to run fully green was held at Silverstone in 2018.

***K-PAX Racing dropped from sixth to ninth in the closing stages after a spin for Sandy Mitchell. The American team confirmed there was no contact with another car, but felt that Mitchell was unfairly pressurized from a lapped BMW in front and the chasing No. 32 WRT BMW behind.

***The post-qualifying Balance of Performance change that saw the Ferrari 296 GT3s shed 10 kg “didn’t suffice” to bring the Italian manufacturer into the mix, according to its post-race statement. Davide Rigon, Antonio Fuoco and Daniel Serra were AF Corse’s highest finishers in 13th after starting from outside the top 20.

***It was a tale of two fortunes for Winward Racing, which claimed its first Endurance Cup class victory with the Gold lineup of Miklas Born, Marius Zug and David Schumacher, but saw its other car eliminated in the Turn 1 melee.

***Winward team boss Christian Hohenadel said: “Even in the difficult conditions yesterday and in qualifying, the guys delivered a highly concentrated performance and seamlessly continued their good showing in the race. The first win in the Gold Cup was long overdue and gives the whole team an additional boost.”

***Winward is the third different team to win in Gold Cup this season. Comtoyou Racing’s Maxime Soulet and Nicolas Baert – the only two-time winners so far – are nonetheless on the brink of the title considering their lead stands at 24 points.

***There was a €1,000 fine for Winward after the team unsafely released its No. 57 Mercedes-AMG into the path of the No. 21 Comtoyou Audi in qualifying. A further €500 was added on top because, according to a stewards report, no video footage was found on the SD card of the Mercedes-AMG’s onboard and pit gantry cameras.

***One Endurance Cup title that was secured at the penultimate round of the season was in Pro-Am. Alex Fontana, Ivan Jacoma and Niki Leutwiler put themselves out of reach with a second-place finish despite a run through the Turn 5 gravel from Fontana in the final stint.

***Glenn van Berlo, Clemens Schmid and Benjamin Hites took the Silver Cup points lead with their second win of the season for Grasser Racing Team. Silver is the closest of the five categories heading to Barcelona, with five points separating the top two lineups.

***Mapdanda Motorsport’s Ezequiel Companc explained that contact with Alex Aka exiting the final corner caused the left-front puncture that dumped his No. 90 Mercedes-AMG out of the race. Companc spotted an opening on the inside of Aka’s Tresor Attempto Audi but the pair made contact.

***Companc told Sportscar365: “It was hard but fair and we shook hands afterward. My car’s rim went against his car and pulled the tire against the rim.”

***Sky-Tempesta Racing emerged with a seven-point lead in Bronze Cup despite an eventful race for its Garage 59-run McLaren 720s GT3 Evo. Chris Froggatt was spun around by Baert at Turn 1 and then handed a five-second penalty for contact with the Rxcing Porsche earlier in his stint. Froggatt, Jonathan Hui and Eddie Cheever recovered to finish second.

***Pure Rxcing looked set to win Bronze Cup until the left-front bodywork rose up, drawing a mechanical black flag from the stewards. The cause of the incident was unclear at the time of publication, but Tim Heinemann had already moved Herberth Motorsport’s No. 91 Porsche ahead by the time Klaus Bachler pitted.

***GTWC Europe’s summer break starts after the Nürburgring, although 18 drivers will be back at the same venue this weekend for a DTM round on the short version of the Grand Prix circuit.

***The next GTWC Europe fixture is the third round of the Sprint Cup season at Hockenheim on Sep. 2-3. The Endurance Cup season concludes at Barcelona in October.