The first visit of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe to the Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Valencia had Mercedes all over it, as the No. 6 TokSport Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel and Luca Stolz dominated the weekend with a pair of wins, while already crowned champions Charles Weerts, Dries Vanthoor and WRT had a less than desirable Saturday that echoed on the Sunday.
Departing from the front row on Race 1 was perfect for the No. 6 TokSport Mercedes, but to avoid any game breaking issues, Luca Stolz let Ben Barnicoat go and lead in the No. 38 JOTA McLaren. The panel bending was reserved for the back of the field, with the No. 90 Madpanda Mercedes severely damaged and the No. 188 Garage 59 Aston Martin saying goodbye to the race.
Charles Weerts could afford being a bit risky, but he certainly didn’t expect throwing the No. 32 WRT Audi at the back of the No. 107 CMR Bentley, which essentially threw the Belgian to the back of the field. On the other end of the field, JOTA Sport and Ben Barnicoat didn’t expect that Luca Stolz was increasing the pace before giving the No. 6 to Maro Engel, and when Engel took the Mercedes out, he was in front of the No. 38. To make things worse for the Mighty 38, Ollie Wilkinson was hit in the back by the No. 14 Emil Frey Lamborghini and sent to a spin, eventually going to the pits to retire the car again in the season.
The succession of things happening since the pit window helped the No. 6 TokSport Mercedes to not only consolidate its lead, but also to win with a decent margin over the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi.
GTWC Europe Valencia - Race 1 results
The No. 99 Attempto Audi was the Silver Cup winner with ease, while the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari had it in the Pro-Am Cup by going the hard way, as the No. 77 Barwell Lamborghini was a threat during most of the race.
On Race 2 the No. 6 was on pole, and with more Mercedes machinery behind, Maro Engel had some sort of protection from any outsiders eager to join the party. With the No. 114 Emil Frey Lamborghini and the No. 108 CMR Bentley stopped due to a multi-car contact triggered by the No. 32 WRT Audi, the first Safety Car period cam with five minutes of racing.
Green flag was back even before the 10-minute mark, and basically the Mercedes trio in front held position for as long possible, as the No. 87 AKKA-ASP Mercedes saw its territory being invaded by the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche and the No. 163 Emil Frey Lamborghini for third and fourth place, losing both battles but retaining the Silver Cup lead.
The No. 6 was the one in the comfortable position this time, and its stop in the middle of the pit window nearly gave the lead to the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes as their pitwork was incredibly superior. Near the end of the race it looked like the No. 89 would lose place to the No. 163 Emil Frey Lamborghini as the Swiss car approached fast, but Petru Umbrarescu held Norbert Siedler firmly while the No. 6 TokSport Mercedes just had to cruise to the line to complete the weekend sweep.
GTWC Europe Valencia - Race 2 results
The No. 87 AKKA-ASP Mercedes still won the Silver Cup, but it dropped so much it almost fell victim of the No. 90 Madpanda Mercedes, and the Pro-Am Cup was won by the No. 20 SPS Mercedes in comfortable fashion, making it three Mercedes wins out of three in the race.
WRT had already the Sprint Cup title before Valencia, but TokSport had such a better weekend it closed down to lose both the drivers and teams titles by less than five points. Alex Fontana and Emil Frey Racing had a lot of cushion to win the Silver Cup title, so the perils of Saturday weren’t in their way, and Barwell Motorsport was unbeatable with Miguel Ramos and Henrique Chaves in the Pro-Am Cup, even despite a last effort from SPS Automotive.
While the Sprint Cup season is over, the Endurance Cup still had the Barcelona round to go on 10 October, which will decide the Endurance Cup and overall GTWC Europe titles of the 2021 season.
PHOTOS: SRO/Patrick Hecq, Dirk Bogaerts
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