The Paul Ricard 1000 held last weekend was initially giving indications that ROWE Racing BMWs would be the team on top with the Audi teams also appearing as strong contenders, but in a brilliant strategy of saving the best for last, the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes saw Raffaele Marciello carry on the job done by Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon and do a bit more during the night time at Le Castellet, leaving an open fight in the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup standings before moving to Spa-Francorchamps.
And you would be mistaken into thinking only three manufacturers had a shot in this six hour race, as Ferrari finally found pace in their pair of AF Corse 296 GT3s, and even Lamborghini had a look at the top spot with the No. 63 Iron Lynx entry before penalties for track limit abuse ruin the day.
It was a Mercedes front row in the initial grid and the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes would go to justify the position, jumping way ahead of the No. 777 Al Manar Mercedes while a trio of Audis took the positions behind them. While that, the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini went rear first into the Mistral wall, and with further cars going of massively, a Safety Car had to be called.
With almost 15 minutes taken to clean the mess, the green was waved again, and immediately the No. 777 had all the main Audi customer teams all over it - No. 40 Tresor in third, No. 11 ComToYou in fourth and No. 25 Saintéloc in fifth. Eventually the No. 11 bailed out of the battle for an unscheduled pit stop, but the Audis were keeping a close watch on the No. 777, with Dennis Marschall passing Maro Engel near the end of the hour.
Jules Gounon went for a second stint in the No. 88 only to see Mattia Drudi continue Marschall’s work in the No. 40 and take the lead and go away with it. Further behind, the No. 98 ROWE BMW was rising in the ranks after dealing with the pair of AF Corse Ferraris and with the No. 32 WRT BMW to feature in the top-5 overall. The No. 32 would retire with suspension damage, leaving the No. 71 and No. 51 to fight with the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi for the fifth position, with things going back and forth between the trio of cars.
Midway into the race the No. 88 would drop off the second place, losing places to the No. 777 Al Manar Mercedes and the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi, and Timur Boguslavskiy was still a target as the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini and the AF Corse Ferraris were all over him. As for the No. 40, a puncture basically took it out of contention, opening the way to the No. 98 ROWE BMW, with the sister No. 998 interestngly approach the top-5 with the fourth hour approaching. The chashing pack was all over the No. 88 and Dan Harper swiftly put the No. 998 ahead, only to be passed again a few corners later.
Saintéloc made the work count in the penultimate pit window and took second place with the No. 25 Audi, and with Raffaele Marciello extracting a bit more from the No. 88, he jumped into third place as he passed Luca Stolz in the No. 777 Al Manar Mercedes. The No. 98 ROWE BMW then didn’t have the last pit cycle on its favor and lost the lead to the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes, with the No. 777 taking back the second place from the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi.
Strategy was basically over in the final hour as everything would be decided in track pace, and depending on this factor only couldn’t be more benefical to Marciello, with the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes being carried in a monstrous final stint to the win without any threats.
GTWC Europe - Paul Ricard 1000 results
The No. 21 ComToYou Audi confirmed the Gold Cup victory after dominating the majority of the race despite seeing the class contenders getting closer and closer, and the Bronze Cup winning No. 79 HRT Mercedes and the Silver Cup winning No. 99 Tresor Audi completed the list of class winners within the overall top-20, while the Pro-Am Cup winning No. 24 Car Collection Porsche came home in 31st overall.
The standings still favor the No. 98 ROWE BMW crew as Wittmann, Eng and Yelloly have 45 points against 34 of the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes crew of Marciello, Boguslavskiy and Gounon, with ROWE Racing appearing again in third with the No. 998 BMW crew as Harper, Hesse and Verhagen have 27 points.
Now the competitors will prepare for the main event of the season, as the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa will take place on 1 and 2 July, also counting for the Intercontinental GT Challenge with 72 cars confirmed for this years grid.
PHOTO: SRO/TWENTY-ONE CREATION/Jules Benichou
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