Akkodis ASP and WRT win at Valencia

Valencia held the penultimate weekend of FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, and whatever team had the most consistency would gain an advantage. Although the No. 40 Tresor Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller would remain a top contender for the two races, the duo had to watch the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy win on Saturday and the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts win on Sunday.
 
Race 1 had the No. 66 Tresor Audi establishing territory in the lead while Raffaele Marciello had to fight back the Emil Frey invasion after a slow start from second, although he saved the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes from being engulfed by the field before the first Safety Car visit on Lap 1 as a result of too many cars going wide into Turn 1 and some of them being punted in the process.
 
It would be helpful into the No. 66 aspirations in the Bronze Cup if Dennis Marschall kept his overall lead while the Pro Cup cars behind him were settling their differences, which would keep Ayhançan Güven and the No. 911 Pure Porsche at bay in fifth overall and second in Bronze Cup. Contrary to those in front, the No. 40 Tresor Audi went to attack mode as Ricardo Feller knew that staying stuck behind Güven would have serious title race implications, leaving only the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari and the No. 12 Comtoyou Audi between him and Marciello.
 
Marciello opted to stay with the Bronze Cup cars and stretch his stint to a minute before the pit window closing, and the strategy worked in order to keep the No. 88 in front, this time with clean air for Timur Boguslavskiy, while Albert Costa was in hot pursuit as the No. 69 just passed to second place.
 
Although Boguslavskiy had open way ahead, Costa and Mattia Drudi were faster sector by sector, so his job was to mitigate the gains of those behind. The gap went down and down until the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes appear within striking range of the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari, and it can be said that Boguslavskiy was saved by the flag, as he only had to block Costa during the Final Lap´to secure the victory by 0.3 seconds after more than half of a lap with the mirrors full of Ferrari.
 
GTWC Europe - Valencia Race 1 results
 
The No. 99 Tresor Audi had quite an equally nervous finish to win in the Silver Cup as the No. 77 HRT Mercedes was just 3 seconds behind, and so did the No. 66 Tresor Audi in the Bronze Cup, as the lead was kept during the whole race but the No. 911 Pure Porsche finished the race just 0.9 seconds behind it. The only class that had a comfortable winner was the Gold Cup, with the No. 21 Comtoyou Audi being 9 seconds ahead of the No. 26 Saintéloc Audi and 48 seconds ahead of the third placed No. 9 Boutsen VDS Audi.
 

Race 2 had a more organized chaos in the first corners but the Safety Car was called immediately after three cars get damaged and beached in the gravel, which kept the No. 27 Saintéloc Audi in first while the No. 69 Emi Frey Ferrari stood in second. Considering that most of the grid went three-wide or four-wide until Turn 4 when the No. 119 VSR Lamborghini spun, it was kinda the expected outcome.
 
WRT had its fair share of problems too as the No. 30 BMW had a puncture and the No. 46 BMW had a blockage in the radiator area, which deprived it from its third place.
 
Tresor Attempto had two cars in the top-4, which included the title contending No. 40 Audi, and since the No. 99 Audi had the Silver Cup lead in safe hands, both cars switched places to allow an attack on the No. 69. With Albert Costa potentially making a move to pass Simon Gachet, the No. 40 was called early to the pits, but some lost time would be proven costly in the lead battle.
 
If Tresor had its pit stop hiccups, so did Emil Frey Racing with the No. 69, which meant open way to flip the order and put the No. 32 WRT BMW ahead of the No. 40, which was ahead of the No. 69 after the window. The No. 32 was established in the lead once the remaining cars stopped and the No. 26 tumbled down the order.
 
A Safety Car period delayed the attack from the No. 40 Tresor Audi, but it also helped Charles Weerts to take a breath and keep the No. 32 WRT BMW between the white lines to avoid a track limits penalty, and this was more than enough to score the win with the whole field chasing him.
 
GTWC Europe - Valencia Race 2 results
 
The winners in the Gold Cup and Silver Cup were quite mixed with the Pro Cup cars, so the No. 26 Saintéloc Audi and the No. 99 Tresor Audi were fairly well covered. The No. 911 Pure Porsche completed the Bronze Cup sweep with the competition being almost in its back wing, but not enough to disrupt its control.
 
Marciello and Boguslavskiy have 82 points against the 75.5 of Drudi and Feller, while Vanthoor and Weerts still have chances to spoil the Akkodis ASP party with their 68.5 points in third.
 
After deciding the Endurance Cup, the Sprint Cup will be back for the last dance of 2023, with Zandvoort being the host on 14 and 15 October and settling the score for the sprint and overall GTWC Europe standings.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/Jules Benichou, Patrick Hecq