Title chances intact for WINWARD Racing
The WINWARD Racing Team MANN-FILTER also celebrated a podium in the second race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Hockenheim.
With its fourth podium in the sixth race of the year, the WINWARD Racing Team MANN-FILTER clearly underlined its title ambitions in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup. In the Sunday race of the third meeting of the season at Hockenheim, Maro Engel (38, Monaco) and Lucas Auer (29, Kufstein) added third place to their win the day before. Although the German-Austrian duo lost the championship lead they had taken the previous day, they are only two points behind the leaders. Their team-mates Reece Barr (23, Ireland) and Magnus Gustavsen (23, Norway) crossed the line in a field of 32 GT3 cars from eight different brands in 15th overall and third in the Silver Cup. However, a 5-second penalty imposed afterwards for contact with a rival dropped the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 two places in the Silver Cup.
From tenth on the grid, the drivers of the MANN-FILTER Mamba put on a thrilling comeback in sweltering heat once again. Opening driver Maro Engel gained four positions on the first lap alone and later benefited from a technical problem on a rival’s car. As on the previous day, it was an excellent performance by the WWR pit crew at the mandatory tyre and driver change that enabled Lucas Auer to move up to third. The Tyrolean put the main championship rivals’ BMW ahead of him under pressure until the finish, but the opportunity for a serious attack never came.
“I’m really happy with my performance and that of the whole team,” said a delighted Auer. “After yesterday’s win, today we made the best of a somewhat more difficult starting position. I fought like a lion and was faster in some sections, but never close enough to get a chance for a serious attack.” Team-mate Engel was also happy with third: “Of course I wasn’t entirely happy with my qualifying, where we got caught in traffic a bit. But we made the best of it. The car was mega all weekend, I was able to attack right after the start and made good progress. It was a super weekend, many thanks to the whole team.”
“I’m very satisfied with this race weekend,” praised WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel. “We were fast from the first practice session and collected lots of points for the championship. Big compliments once again to the pit crew. Both stops gained us positions again today. The guys are a fantastic support for our drivers, who also did a great job again. All of that makes me confident for the two remaining Sprint Cup weekends.”
The Sprint Cup field meets for the next round on 24/25 August at Magny-Cours in France. Next weekend, the WINWARD squad already has its next home race in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS. At the 3-hour Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring, the Altendiez team will again run two Mercedes-AMG GT3. In the MANN-FILTER Mamba, Lucas Auer and Maro Engel are joined by Canadian Daniel Morad (33, Markham). The sister car entered in the Silver Cup is driven by Thai Tanart Sathienthirakul (31, Bangkok) and the two Dutchmen Daan Arrow (20, Amsterdam) and Colin Caresani (20, Aerdenhout). The race starts on Sunday (28 July) at 3 pm, and the GT3 action from the Eifel can be watched live and in full at www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com/watch-live