Bittersweet race day at the temple of speed
Early Silver Cup title for WINWARD Racing at the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup round in Monza. Bad luck for the top car of Auer/Engel/Morad.
Joy and sorrow for WINWARD Racing at the fourth round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup in Monza. While Tanart Sathienthirakul (31, Bangkok/Thailand), Daan Arrow (20, Amsterdam/Netherlands) and Colin Caresani (20, Aerdenhout/Netherlands) clinched the Silver Cup title of the Endurance Cup early with their second class win of the season in the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3, their team-mates Lucas Auer (30, Kufstein/Austria), Maro Engel (39, Monaco) and Daniel Morad (34, Markham/Canada) suffered a setback in the fight for the overall title of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS in the sister car entered by Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER.
The race weekend at the temple of speed near Milan had started very well for the German-Texan squad. In the three-part qualifying, Auer, Morad and Engel put the “MANN-FILTER Mamba” third on the grid, laying a good foundation for the title fight in an impressive field of 52 GT3 cars from nine different brands, especially as the WWR trio had travelled to Italy just two points behind the overall leaders. Caresani, Arrow and Sathienthirakul, 26th overall and third in class, also started the race on the 5.8-kilometre Grand Prix circuit in a promising position.
But shortly after the start, the Pro crew’s hopes took a heavy blow. Race control gave Auer sole responsibility for a collision under braking for the first chicane and handed the yellow-green #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 a drive-through penalty. “My mistake, I locked up,” the Tyrolean openly admitted. Having dropped to 24th after serving the penalty, Auer, Morad and Engel set off on an undaunted chase that at times brought them back into the top 10. But luck was not on their side this time.
Because Monza’s newly resurfaced track with around 70 per cent full throttle and the first use of biofuel this year led to higher fuel consumption than usual, every driver’s maximum stint time was reduced to 50 minutes and a third fuel stop was mandatory. This gave the teams more strategic leeway, especially during full-course yellow and safety car phases. And here the WINWARD crew did not have the luckiest touch on the day. In the end only 16th place remained, which means Engel and Auer now take a 20-point deficit to the leaders in the combined Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup standings into the last two events.
There was huge celebration, on the other hand, for their team-mates, who brought their roughly 550 hp car from Affalterbach home in a strong ninth place overall, celebrating their fourth Silver Cup podium in the fourth race and now unbeatable in the standings before the Endurance Cup finale in Saudi Arabia.
“Warm congratulations to Daan, Colin and Tanart, who delivered consistently top performances throughout the season and thoroughly deserve the title,” praised WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel. “Of course we are disappointed with how the race went for our Pro car. For once we didn’t get the maximum out of our package here. The fight for the overall title will now be hard work. We will analyse very carefully what didn’t go perfectly this time, learn our lessons and go into the last two events stronger.”
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup finale only takes place on 30 November in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The GTWC Sprint Cup title will be decided earlier, on 12/13 October at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, where Auer and Engel are second, just two points behind.
But first, Auer, Engel and the team from Altendiez face the penultimate round of the 2024 DTM season at the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg next weekend. Third in the standings, Maro Engel travels to Styria with real title chances.