German domination in the GT World Cup Qualifying Race



The FIA GT World Cup started its pair of races with the qualifying race this Saturday, and very much like in the FIFA World Cup, Germany dominated without question, although the winning German at the streets of Macau, Stefan Mücke, had an English helping hand to do the task.

The race started with Stefan Mücke holding his lead while Edoardo Mortara saw Maro Engel steal his second place at the first corner as the Audis suffered a bit to hold the pressure of the Mercedes drivers. It wouldn’t take long for Mücke and Engel to pull away from the competition to have a personal fight, while Mortara was trying to open the gap to Renger van der Zande.

On Lap3 however, the sole track neutralization period came, as yellow flags were waved due to a crash of Bentley Team Absolute driver Adderly Fong. He smashed his Bentley Continental GT3 into the wall and destroyed the back of the car. Two laps later the Safety Car finally made into the track, holding the competitors on its pace while the rescue vehicle accessed the track to take Fong’s car out.

Lap 8 and the race gets the Green flag again, and second-placed Engel was the only one trying to keep a close distance of Mücke. It wasn’t a question of Engel not trying, but Mücke was really the fastest man on the track.


Last lap and the gap between Mücke and Engel was of almost two seconds. Combining the continuous fast pace with the fact that Engel practically settled for second, the CRAFT-Bamboo Racing driver crossed the finish line in first without problems. Edoardo Mortara completed the top three, the first Macau GT podium for the new Audi R8 LMS. The home driver, Andre Couto, ended the race only in the 20th place.

UPDATE:

After investigation of the stewards, they imposed a 10 second penalty for Stefan Mücke as in the restart of the race he braked before the green flag, causing Maro Engel to take an evasive move in order to remain safe. With this, Engel and the Mercedes AMG Driver Academy wins the race, with Mortara in second and Mücke going down to third.


PHOTO: FIA GT World Cup

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