Van der Linde, Weerts Win Zandvoort Race 2

A fast mid-race pitstop gave Team WRT its first overall GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup victory of the season as Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts won Race 2 at Zandvoort.

Weerts took the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO across the line with an advantage of 12.429 seconds over the No. 26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ivan Klymenko and Lorens Lecertua.

Although the red BMW ran outside the top five for the opening phase of the race, a combination of a rapid pitstop as well as dual penalties for both Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3s allowed Weerts to rejoin the race in first place.

WRT’s pitstop time of 48.2 seconds was comfortably faster than any other car in the lead pack, with a five-second difference to the No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 giving it the lead.

The Lamborghini ran the opening phase in third place behind Ben Green and Chris Lulham, but both Emil Frey drivers were given a ten-second penalty for a jump start and incorrect starting position, respectively.

However, Luca Engstler took the car over from Jordan Pepper and joined the race in third place, having been leapfrogged by both Weerts and the No. 26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Klymenko.

Klymenko then spent the remainder of the race defending from a pack of Pro entries behind, successfully hanging on to second overall and also capturing the Silver Cup win together with Lorens Lecertua.

Engstler and Pepper completed the podium in third, ahead of the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhoefer.

Patric Niederhauser and Sven Mueller followed up their Saturday win with fifth on Sunday.

The No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R crossed the line in sixth, but was promoted due to a pitlane speeding penalty for the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that dropped it to ninth.

Silver Cup runners made up most of the remainder of the top ten, with the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi followed by the No. 992 Paradine Competition BMW and No. 21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Behind Auer and Engel, Luca Stolz and Maxime Martin completed the top ten in the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG.

Although their penalty dropped them outside of the top ten, Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham still picked up the Gold Cup win with their No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari.

Kessel Racing, meanwhile, captured the Bronze Cup win with the No. 74 Ferrari for Dennis Marschall and Dustin Blattner.

RESULTS: Race 2