WINWARD has its hand on the trophy
With P3 in a bizarre Saturday race in Barcelona, Lucas Auer and Maro Engel took the lead in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.
The WINWARD Racing Team MANN-FILTER has put itself in an excellent position for the showdown in the fight for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup title. With third place in the weather-hit Saturday race of the last race weekend in Barcelona, Maro Engel (39, Monaco) and Lucas Auer (30, Kufstein) took the lead in the overall standings in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Before the last Sprint Cup race on Sunday, the WINWARD duo is now 6.5 points ahead of their title rivals from BMW Team WRT. A total of 17.5 points are still up for grabs.
Reece Barr and Gilles Badstaber had a lot of bad luck in the sister car entered in the Silver Cup. Just a few metres after the start, Barr tangled with a rival on the still damp track, and the contact damaged the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 so badly that he had to retire on the spot.
It was the start of a highly bizarre race. To clear the two damaged cars and lots of debris, race control sent out the safety car. And because it started raining again at the same time, the race turned into a real weather lottery. Lucas Auer, who had started third on slick tyres and dropped back to ninth after a cautious start against some rivals on rain tyres, and title rival Dries Vanthoor in the #32 BMW, seven places behind him at that point, both came into their neighbouring pit boxes at the end of lap 5 for treaded tyres.
Because the WRT sister car #30, which had also come in, stopped at such an angle in front of Auer that the WINWARD crew first had to push the “MANN-FILTER Mamba” back after the tyre change, the #32 BMW left the pit lane ahead of the Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the stewards looked into the incident after the race.
At the mandatory stop, where all wheels and the driver must be changed between the 25th and 35th minute, the WWR crew put things right with a super stop. Maro Engel was now sixth, two places ahead of title rival Charles Weerts. The whole field was still running behind the safety car in heavy rain by now, with several GT3 cars stranded at the side of the track. That would not change until 5:20 minutes before the end.
But the three (!) green-flag laps that followed were something else. Having charged up to third within one lap, Engel lost the three places he had just gained with a small trip through the gravel. In the remaining lap and a half, the veteran made up the lost ground and brought the “Mamba” home in third. And because the title rivals dropped another place at the same time and only finished ninth, the WINWARD drivers gained 8.5 points in total and now have the title in their own hands in tomorrow’s final race. In the teams’ standings, the WINWARD Racing Team MANN-FILTER goes into the finale three points ahead of WRT.
“A totally crazy race,” commented Engel. “It was absolutely right to keep the safety car out so long. The aquaplaning was too strong and the visibility too poor. When the green flag came out three laps from the end, I knew I had to attack hard and gain places. I was able to overtake three rivals straight away, but then I was a bit too optimistic on the brakes trying to catch second place. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. It’s great that we still finished third and took the lead in the standings. Now we need a clean day tomorrow, then anything is possible.”
“After a solid qualifying, the first stint was completely crazy,” Auer described. “The first few corners on slicks were tricky, and some cars on rain tyres drove past. When we had to change too because the rain kept getting heavier, WRT parked us in at the pits and we had to push the car back. But in the end we came out of all those situations well and are now looking forward to tomorrow.”
“I’ve rarely experienced a race like that, not even on the Nordschleife,” smiled WWR team principal and former racing driver Christian Hohenadel. “Although we spent more than 90 per cent of it behind the safety car, the race was a real emotional rollercoaster. Compliments to the whole team, who despite all the adversity have given us such an excellent starting position for tomorrow. Now we will do everything we can to bring both titles to Altendiez.”
The final race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup starts tomorrow, again at 2 pm. Motorsport fans can follow the nail-biting finale on the 4.6-kilometre Grand Prix circuit near Barcelona live on Sky F1 or via the live stream at www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com and on YouTube.