Dinamic Motorsport had a comfortable win to celebrate at the Nürburgring race of the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS season, with the No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3R of Sven Müller, Matteo Cairoli and Christian Engelhardt enjoying clear way ahead for most of the six hours of racing.
The all-Porsche front row was broken in what wasn’t the prettiest of the ways at the start, with the No. 40 GPX going from the pole position to a crash at Turn 1 with the No. 163 Emil Frey Lamborghini, which took the top sport after the incident. With the No. 40 and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari stopped at Turn 1, the Safety Car needed to be called. With the damage collected, the No. 163 had to go to the garage, meaning that the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche claimed the lead under yellow, and the race went green like this.
The surprise at this point was the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini in fourth while leading the Silver Cup with a good margin, investigating when an overtaking move for the podium was possible, watching the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes get second place from the No. 32 WRT Audi. Eventually the Pro Cup cars started accumulating at the back of the No. 78 and passed it one by one.
The No. 54 Dinamic Porsche was still leading the way out of the first pit window and into the second hour, though the main difference in the field was that the Silver Cup was way down the order, with the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini struggling to keep the class lead away from the No. 15 Tech1 Lexus, though the swap eventually happened as the No. 78 tumbled down the order with engine problems.
A convenient yellow flag period gave the teams the opportunity to pit early in the second window, but in fact this didn’t affect the top places as well the class leaders, with the most significant movement being the No. 32 WRT Audi passing the No. 9 K-PAX Bentley for fourth place after an intense battle between hristopher Mies and Alex Buncombe. The hour ended again with a yellow flag near the pit window as the Pro-Am leader, the No. 77 Barwell Lamborghini, got caught in contact by the No. 56 Dinamic Porsche, giving the class lead to the No. 87 AKKA-ASP Mercedes.
The halfway mark saw the chasing pack a bit more close between themselves while the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche was still leading with a decent margin. For the first time in two hours the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes was at risk of losing the second place to the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi, which eventually happened when a mix of traffic and pressure came into the No. 88, but the No. 25 had to give it back as it cut the track at the final chicane.
While hurrying up to retake the position, the No. 25 tried a desperate move and spun due to contact with the No. 88 while the No. 4 HRT Mercedes had to go wide to evade the incident, and the mess opened the way for the No. 12 GPX Porsche to go to second and for the No. 32 WRT Audi to go to third, while the No. 88 was left in fourth fighting to defend it from the charging Luca Stolz in the No. 4.
As if the second place battle wasn’t hot, Patrick Pillet missed the braking point and went into the barriers, giving the position to the No. 32 WRT Audi. While the No. 12 got back from the gravel trap, it had significant damage at its right side.
The fifth hour was opened under yellow flag with two cars stopped trackside, and once the green flag came back the order changed a bit again, with the No. 88 going back to third while being chased by the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini, all while the leading No. 54 and the second placed No. 32 were still at striking distance. The No. 88 came back to second as a penalty fell over the No. 32 WRT Audi due to an unsafe release in the first pit stop.
The final pit window saw no position changes at the top of the table, with the teams keeping their strongest drivers on track from the fifth hour. The No. 54 Dinamic Porsche kept its comfortable lead, while the No. 88 AKKA-ASP and the No. 4 HRT were again in a Mercedes battle for second place. The Silver Cup had the No. 159 Garage 59 Aston Martin having to defend their two hour lead from the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini, while the No. 991 Herberth Porsche was leading the Pro-Am Cup with certain ease.
The win for the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche was certain, and it ran to the line like this while the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes got breathing space to get in second, while the No. 4 HRT Mercedes had to defend bravely the third place. The No. 159 Garage 59 Aston Martin got the Silver Cup win in the most heart stopping way possible, as the battle with the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini lasted until the finish line.
The Pro-Am Cup winner was the No. 19 FFF Lamborghini as the No. 991 Herberth Porsche conceded its domination in the final hour.
GTWC Europe - Nürburgring race results
Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde lead the standings with 40 points against 39 from Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Felipe Fraga in the Endurance Cup.
Marciello and Boguslavskiy are in second in the overall GT World Challenge Europe standings too with 62 points, in between leaders Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor, with 64.5 points, and third placed Kelvin van der Linde with 61 points.
The competitors will head to France as Magny-Cours will host the fourth round of the season and the second of the Sprint Cup, with the triple header being held on 11 to 13 September.
PHOTO: SRO/Dirk Bogaerts
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