WRT Moves Up to Third After Emil Frey Penalty

Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts have moved up to third in the final classification for Saturday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup race at Hockenheim after a post-race penalty for the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

The stewards determined that Emil Frey driver Thierry Vermeulen caused a collision with Vanthoor as they battled through the final double right-hander at the end of the last lap.

Vermeulen crossed the line 0.192 seconds ahead of Vanthoor, capturing third alongside his co-driver Albert Costa, but a penalty was issued three hours after the checkered flag.

The extra one-second has dropped the No. 69 Ferrari duo to fourth in Race 1 and handed Vanthoor and Charles Weerts their fourth podium in five Sprint Cup races this season.

The drivers of the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 gained two extra points but remain third in the Sprint Cup drivers’ standings, behind Race 1 winners Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi, and points leaders Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy.

Several cars incurred five-second post-race penalties, either for abusing track limits or causing a collision, although none bore as significant an impact as the Ferrari’s.

The Nos. 26 and 27 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs, the Paul Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and the No. 68 Nova Race Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 were all caught breaching track limits four times.

Herberth Motorsport’s No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R received a five-second penalty for causing a collision but this did not impact its podium result in the Bronze Cup class.

Ralf Bohn was deemed to have Alex Aka around at the hairpin, causing the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Audi to retire with right-rear suspension damage.

RESULTS: Race 1 (final)