WRT, Winward Split Magny-Cours Wins; Set Up Title Showdown

Team WRT and Winward Racing split victories during the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup round at Magny-Cours, leaving the two teams separated by just two points heading into the Barcelona season finale.

Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts were declared winners of the opening 60-minute contest on Saturday after a five-second penalty for Rutronik Racing, while Lucas Auer and Maro Engel then defeated their title rivals in a direct battle to win on Sunday.

Race 1, which finished under the cover of darkness on Saturday evening, was initially won by the No. 96 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sven Mueller and Patric Niederhauser, with the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 coming home in second.

Niederhauser fought his way past Weerts at the first corner after taking over the car from Mueller during the mandatory pitstop, leading the BMW home by 2.604 seconds.

It appeared to be Porsche’s first-ever overall Sprint Cup win, but the German squad was later given a penalty for an unsafe release and dropped to third place behind WRT and Winward’s No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which was promoted to second place.

The pair of Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3s came home in fourth and fifth, while Lorenzo Patrese and Lorenzo Ferrari took their No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to Gold Cup honors in sixth place overall.

Madpanda Motorsport won Silver Cup upon their return to the class with its No. 90 Mercedes-AMG driven by Ezequiel Perez Companc and Tom Kalender, while the No. 78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell came out on top in Bronze Cup.

On Sunday, a direct battle between the two championship protagonists saw the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG cross the line just half a second ahead of the No. 32 BMW to take its third win of the season.

Boutsen VDS led the early running after Jules Gounon captured pole position aboard the No. 9 Mercedes-AMG and kept position at the head of the field to hand over to co-driver Maximilian Goetz.

Goetz emerged out front ahead of Auer and Vanthoor, but Auer then went on the attack at the Adelaide hairpin.

The No.9 Mercedes-AMG put up a strong defence, but Goetz eventually ran wide and had to concede the lead to his fellow Mercedes-AMG factory driver.

Vanthoor soon followed suit and moved into second, but an attempt for the race lead failed and the No. 32 BMW dropped back behind Goetz.

The Belgian recaptured second and again pressured Auer for the race lead, but the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG held on to cross the line by a margin of 0.563 seconds.

Goetz finished third to return Boutsen VDS to the podium for the first time since the Brands Hatch season opener, while Gold Cup winners Patrese and Ferrari finished fourth overall.

It marked a third consecutive class win for Tresor Attempto Racing, while Garage 59 completed the overall top five with the No. 159 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo driven by Tom Gamble and Benjamin Goethe.

Thomas Fleming and Eliseo Donno took their third Silver Cup win of the season aboard the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari, while Bronze Cup went the way of the Rutronik Racing pairing of Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall.

In the battle for the overall championship, Vanthoor and Weerts have accumulated 101,5 points and sit just two points ahead of Engel and Auer, who are on 99,5.

The Sprint Cup titles will be decided during the finale at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, held on Oct. 11-13.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2