Winward Win 6H Jeddah; AF Corse Take Endurance Title

Daniel Morad, Lucas Auer and Maro Engel took victory in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup finale in Jeddah, which saw Alessandro Pier Guidi and Alessio Rovera claim the drivers’ title in unlikely and dramatic circumstances.

The No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo crossed the line 7.971 seconds ahead of the No. 163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The German squad captured the lead of the race in the third hour, when Auer leapfrogged Valentino Rossi during a round of pitstops and subsequently rejoined the track in front of Grasser driver Franck Perera, who had pitted earlier.

Rossi’s No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 had battled for the lead with Jordan Pepper at the wheel after a previous safety car restart.

That safety car was triggered when CSA Racing’s Arthur Rougier and Kessel Racing driver Niccolo Rosi came together in a significant incident in hour two.

SRO Motorsports Group confirmed in a statement that Rougier was transported to a local hospital for further assessment in the wake of the incident.

With the No. 46 BMW fading with Rossi at the wheel, the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG was able to pull out a gap over the No. 163 for car the remainder of the race, claiming Winward’s first Endurance Cup victory of the year.

Perera, Pepper and Marco Mapelli finished second and narrowly missed out on the Endurance Cup drivers’ title in the process, needing a victory to have a realistic shot at the title.

Instead, that crown went to Pier Guidi and Rovera, who broke through to finish third overall and wrestle the title away from Comtoyou Racing trio Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi in unlikely fashion.

The No. 51 crew came into the final race just three points behind Comtoyou in the standings, but lost significant time early on when it was impeded by the sister No. 52 car in the pits and dropped away from the top 20.

With the No. 7 Comtoyou Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo struggling for pace on the fringes of the top ten, that initially appeared to set up a title showdown between Grasser and the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Christopher Haase, Ricardo Feller and Alex Aka.

However, that all changed when the No. 21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Job van Uitert stopped on the start-finish straight with 43 minutes to go.

This triggered a full course yellow that allowed both the No. 7 Aston Martin and the No. 51 Ferrari to make their final stops under caution, promoting them to fourth and sixth at the restart.

In the scramble that followed, Pier Guidi wrestled his Ferrari up past Thiim and into fourth, before the Dane then ran wide and dropped to seventh.

Comtoyou’s remaining title hopes were then dealt a final, fatal blow when the No. 7 car incurred a 30-second penalty for track limit abuses, which dropped it to tenth.

Pier Guidi, meanwhile, also managed to pass Dries Vanthoor’s No. 32 Team WRT BMW to capture third, taking the drivers’ title in the process.

As a result, he and Rovera succeed the Akkodis ASP Team trio of Jules Gounon, Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy as Endurance Cup drivers champions.

It marks Pier Guidi’s third drivers’ crown after previous back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021, while Rovera became champion for the first time.

Rigon, meanwhile, misses out on the title as he missed the Monza round due to a clash with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

For their part, Auer and Engel were crowned the overall Fanatec GT Europe drivers’ champions, also taking into account their championship success in the Sprint Cup standings.

Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Sheldon van der Linde finished fourth, with their WRT stablemates Marciello, Rossi and Maxime Martin rounding out the overall top five.

Haase, Feller and Aka finished sixth, ahead of the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini driven by Loris Spinelli, Andrea Caldarelli and Matteo Cairoli.

The No. 2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry, No. 159 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin completed the remainder of the top ten.

Sainteloc, Sky-Tempesta Capture Titles in Gold, Bronze Cup

Championships in two out of the three other classes were also decided in Jeddah, with Sainteloc Racing and Sky-Tempesta Racing capturing the Gold and Bronze Cup titles.

A controlling performance for Gilles Magnus, Jim Pla and Paul Evrard allowed the No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to press home a comfortable points advantage.

The French squad came into the finale with a 27-point lead over Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed and finished ahead of the No. 777 Mercedes-AMG to succeed Nicolas Baert and Maxime Soulet as champions.

Sky-Tempesta, meanwhile, captured the Bronze Cup title despite not finishing on the class podium once across the entire campaign.

The class win in the Jeddah finale, meanwhile, went to the No. 97 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Dustin Blattner, Loek Hartog and Dennis Marschall.

The championship in Silver Cup had already been decided prior to the final round, as Winward Racing trio Colin Caresani, Daan Arrow and Tanart Sathienthirakul clinched the title with a race to spare last time out at Monza.

However, with the German squad’s No. 57 car not on the grid for the six-hour finale, it left the way clear for the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi of Ezequiel Perez Companc, Kobe Pauwels and Lucas Legeret to take the class win.

Other notable titles include Team WRT beating Winward Racing to the combined overall Fanatec GT Europe teams’ standings, while Mercedes-AMG continues its unbeaten run of six consecutive global Fanatec GT manufacturers’ championship titles.