Even though the second race at Magny-Cours for the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS had some sort of fight for the win, Sainteloc Racing had it in control with the No. 26 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, driven by Silver Cup drivers Simon Gachet and Steven Palette.
The warm-up procedure had a pretty odd situation where the polesitter No. 26 Sainteloc Audi got ahead in the starting procedure, but initially it didn’t have any impacts in its frontrunner position. While the front had a safe start, the midfield was contact-filled, and the amount of debris and some cars visiting the gravel were the reasons to call the Safety Car for the first time.
The No. 108 CMR Bentley and the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes were in the worst end of the mess, having lots of damage and staying stationary at their respective garages.
Five minutes later the green flag came back with the No. 26 not only holding the lead but also opening the gap to the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes, though Raffaele Marciello was determined to chase Simon Gachet, though the effort wasn’t enough to build an attack before the pit window.
What didn’t work on track eventually was a success in the pit stop, with the No. 88 taking the top spot with excellent pitwork, though Timur Boguslavskiy still had to hold Steven Palette with cold tires, but even though the Russian could go past this phase, he couldn’t hold the pressure of the No. 26, so the French machine was quick to capitalize in the mistake and recover the first place.
With 15 minutes to go the worries of the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes turned from attacking the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi to holding station from the No. 4 HRT Mercedes as Luca Stolz was in a hard charge. The Mercedes fight for second place simply opened the way for the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi to go away, and it was clear to get an uncommon overall victory for a Silver Cup car, while the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes held the second place overall to win the Pro Cup.
GTWC Europe - Magny-Cours Race 2 results
SKY Tempesta completed a clean sweep on French soil with another 1-2 in the Pro-Am Cup for the No. 92 & 93 Ferraris, having run mixed with the top dogs in the first half of racing and enjoying a dominant second half with no threats around.
Despite staying away from the any challenge for the victory, Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor still lead the overall standings on consistency alone, as they have 81.5 points against 77 from Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy and 73 from Maro Engel and Luca Stolz.
Weerts and Vanthoor also lead the Sprint Cup with 57.5 points, but with a tighter margin to Engel and Stolz, who have 54 points, while Marciello and Boguslavskiy will have to catch up with them as they have 38 points.
The series will now complete the Sprint Cup part with the remaining two events, with the next one being at the remodeled Zandvoort circuit on 26 & 27 September.
PHOTO: SRO/Patrick Hecq
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