It can be said that Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi went to Zandvoort to end the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe season playing it for the points and got way more than that, as the pair of the No. 40 Tresor Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II got the full sweep and the Sprint Cup titles for drivers and teams, firstly because of their own merits in both races but also because of the risks that Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy took that didn’t pay the huge dividends they were expecting in the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes.
The No. 40 Tresor Audi held the first position as hard as possible against a hungry Raffaele Marciello, but getting too aggressive to find a way past was incredibly costly for the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes, as Marciello found the gravel after losing traction on the outside, being sent down to 14th position with a recovery race to add to his worries.
The rest of Ricardo Feller’s stint was spent holding the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari as Albert Costa was trying to find openings in Feller’s line. In the end, the lead battle would be decided after the pit window, with the No. 40 jumping in as soon as possible while Costa kept clocking laps until halfway into the window, and with pitwork being four seconds faster than in the Tresor garage, the No. 69 was in front with Timothy Vermeulen at the wheel.
Another team that aced during the pit window was Akkodis ASP, as Marciello completed his job and sent the No. 88 Mercedes to Timur Boguslavskiy in fourth, where he could decide on taking on the No. 25 Saintéloc Audi for third or keep position to keep the title hopes for Sunday.
A lenghty caution period caused by the No. 54 Dinamic Porsche left only 10 minutes of racing, and the No. 88 lost positions immediately to the No. 44 CLRT Porsche and the No. 46 WRT BMW, which also gained third place from the No. 25. The Saintéloc car fell into a three-way battle for fourth place, only to be spun by Ayhançan Güven in the No. 44, giving two places to Boguslavskiy;
With some aggressive moves, Mattia Drudi could find the way back to the lead with 4 minutes to go, and as Vermeulen could only match his pace, the Italian guided the No. 40 Tresor Audi to the win.
GTWC Europe - Zandvoort Race 1 results
The Silver Cup winner was the No. 77 HRT Mercedes which came really close of an overall top-5, while the Gold Cup a Boutsen VDS 1-2 with the Audis No. 9 and 10.
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WRT was locking the front row on Race 2 and at least the No. 46 BMW kept the lead while the No. 77 HRT Mercedes passed the No. 30 WRT BMW for second, meaning that all class leaders were in the top-3. Mattia Drudi was keeping the No. 40 Tresor Audi in tenth whie the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes was clamped by the field since Tarzanbocht, and halfway into the first lap the No. 99 Tresor Audi found it and contact spun the No. 88, leaving a bent left front suspension in the process, which Timur Boguslavskiy carried to the pits only to retire.
The first worked like the ESport GT Pro races where the class leaders would avoid trouble and protect their places, but the problem is that a bunch of Pro Cup cars were right behind with matters to settle in the teams standings.
Then, with 20 minutes of racing, rain fell suddenly at the whole track, catching a lot of drivers unguarded, just like Maxime Martin when the No. 46 slid to the Tarzan gravel, eventually losing the lead to the sister No. 30 BMW. When the race returned after a lengthy Safety Car period, the No. 40 had all the traction and immediately rose to the lead.
With none of the WRT BMWs demonstrating the minimum traction to match the pace of the No. 40 Tresor Audi, Ricardo Feller just had to bring the car home to secure both Sprint Cup titles.
GTWC Europe - Zandvoort Race 2 results
The No. 30 WRT BMW remained unchallenged in the top of the Gold Cup, and so did the No. 77 HRT Mercedes in the Silver Cup.
Drudi and Feller took the Sprint Cup drivers crown with 109.5 points against 90.5 of Boguslavskiy/Marciello, and Tresor had 115 points against 108 from WRT to secure the Sprint Cup teams title.
Jordan Love and Haupt Racing took the benefits of the good Silver Cup run in Dutch lands and sealed both titles, and Calan Williams and Niklas Krütten took the Gold Cup drivers title but Boutsen VDS was the champion team.
The only overall GTWC Europe titles to settle were the Gold Cup ones, which mirrored the Sprint Cup ones as Williams and Krütten took the drivers title but Boutsen VDS took the teams title.
The Sprint Cup starts the 2024 season at Brands Hatch on 4 and 5 May.
PHOTOS: SRO/Jules Benichou
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