The No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo had a dominant run to win the Nürburgring Endurance Cup round of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe, which left Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon incredibly close of securing the long distance races title with only one round to go.
The pole position compensated for the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes, as the inside line was used to take cover from the sim racing like Turn 1 bowling that luckily only turned around the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, and since most of the field was either side by side or three-wide, Raffaele Marciello was in the safest position possible in the first lap.
The No. 157 Winward Mercedes was keeping a top-5 overall for most of the first hour under the established status quo, but once the tires took the beating, David Schumacher started tumbling own the order while still keeping the Gold Cup lead.
In the second hour the chaser changed behind the No. 88, as the No. 777 Al Manar Mercedes took the second position from the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche, which then fell under the radar of the No. 40 Tresor Audi, with the swap being completed after the final pit window as Ricardo Feller decided he wouldn’t have none of it of Thomas Preining’s defensive moves.
The final hour was the moment when the No. 88’s lead was the most under threat, as Luca Stolz was decided to chase off Jules Gounon and put the No. 777 in first, even though the traffic was quite decided to not give room as they had their matters to resolve. The No. 40 was isolated in third as the No. 96 was suffering massively to keep the rear end in place as the tires gave up, which invited the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi to attack Preining, who conceded as the tires made the No. 96 slow all over the place.
Despite some brave charge in the final moments, the No. 777 Al Manar Mercedes wasn’t able to catch the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes, with Gounon completing the job done by his team mates despite the pressure he had.
GTWC Europe - Nürburgring race results
The No. 157 Winward Mercedes had a recovery to appear in the overall top-10 while winning the Gold Cup, and barely in the top-20 the No. 85 GRT Lamborghini got Silver Cup honors against the near threat of the No. 99 Tresor Audi. The No. 91 Herberth Porsche got the Bronze Cup win after the No. 911 Pure Porsche fell hard midway into the race, and the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini was the Pro-Am Cup winner with a generous advantage over the class competition.
The trio Marciello/Boguslavskiy/Gounon is in the Endurance Cup lead with 94 points and will certainly have to sweat the least in the title battle with only the Barcelona finale to go, as the 24 Hours of Spa winning trio Eng/Yelloly/Witmann is second with 76 points and Maro Engel is third with 49, with Sprint Cup races at Hockenheim and Valencia coming before the 1 October race.
PHOTO: SRO/Patrick Hecq
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