WRT Wins Valencia Thriller After Weerts Final Lap Charge

Charles Weerts made two overtakes on the final lap to win a thrilling Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season finale at Valencia following a tire strategy gamble from Team WRT.

The Belgian driver, on slick Pirelli tires, dramatically interrupted the tense battle between Akkodis ASP’s Timur Boguslavskiy and Sainteloc Junior Team’s Aurelien Panis on treaded rubber.

Weerts’ co-driver Dries Vanthoor entered the 60-minute race’s pit window in third, at which point WRT changed its Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II from wets to slicks in response to a gradually drying track.

Weerts lost ground at the start of his stint, dropping to sixth and seemingly out of contention, but momentum swung back in his favor in the latter stages as the dry line increased and the slicks suddenly became favorable.

In the last 10 minutes, Weerts overtook Manuel Maldonado, Ezequiel Companc and Simon Gachet to reach third position, but even with one lap to go it looked as though he was too far away to challenge for the win.

At the head of the field, Boguslavskiy was defending hard from Panis, who had erased the No. 89 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s 22-second lead with a brilliant chase on wets.

After several sighter attempts, Panis got alongside Boguslavskiy around Turn 6 on the final lap, only for Weerts to burst onto the scene from five seconds down and power past the unsuspecting Sainteloc Audi driver on the run down to the next corner.

Weerts then used his superior traction to drive around Boguslavskiy at the Turn 11 right-hander, four corners from the checkered flag.

The WRT driver went on to win by 1.9 seconds, earning his and Vanthoor’s fifth victory of the 10-race season.

Panis eventually got past Boguslavskiy coming out of the final corner to grab second place alongside his Audi Sport factory co-driver Patric Niederhauser.

Weerts’ come-from-behind charge prompted jubilation in the WRT garage after it initially looked like the Belgian squad had thrown away its chances of victory in the pits.

The result capped a title-winning season for Weerts and Vanthoor, who had already sealed their third consecutive Sprint Cup championship by finishing third in Race 1.

It also ensured that Vanthoor eclipsed his older brother Laurens to become the most successful driver in GTWC Europe Sprint Cup history with 15 wins.

Sunday’s contest started with Raffaele Marciello building a significant lead in the No. 89 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG, with Niederhauser slotting into second ahead of Vanthoor.

The damp conditions produced plenty of action in the opening stint with Garage 59’s Nicolaj Kjaergaard, Attempto Racing’s Dennis Marschall and Dinamic Motorsport’s Christian Engelhart battling for the positions behind Vanthoor.

A quick stop from WRT brought Weerts out ahead of Panis’ Sainteloc Audi, which was also jumped by the Attempto Audi of Marschall and Pieter Schothorst.

However, Sainteloc quickly returned to second when the slick-shod Audis ahead of Panis waned in the early stages of their tire strategy gambles.

This also resulted in Gachet climbing to third in the No. 11 Tresor by Car Collection Audi, while Adrien de Leener moved the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche into fourth before losing ground with a spin at the final corner.

After being overtaken by Weerts, Gachet finished fourth for Car Collection, in front of the guesting Madpanda Mercedes-AMG driven by Companc and Fabian Schiller.

Companc’s finished 4.4 seconds clear of Garage 59 McLaren driver Manuel Maldonado to earn Madpanda the Silver Cup spoils.

Dennis Lind and Vincent Abril finished behind Maldonado and Kjaergaard in seventh for the JP Motorsport McLaren outfit, with Akkodis ASP’s Casper Stevenson and Thomas Drouet eighth.

Patryk Krupinski and Christian Klien won the Pro-Am class in their JP Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 to sweep the final round of the season.

RESULTS: Race 2