Rutronik and WRT win at Zandvoort

The narrow and twisty Zandvoort has a lot in common with the first circuit of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, Brands Hatch, but the winners of the two races found different ways to get into the top, as the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Patric Niederhauser and Sven Müller conquering on pace and placement the Race 1, while the Race 2 saw more pit stop magic in favor of the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde.
 
The first race had the uncommon scene of cars from the Bronze Cup and Gold Cup in the front row, with the first Pro Cup car departing from third place, and mixed classes and a tight and twisty track were factors the called trouble, with bonnets flying and cars spinning while the No. 89 Lionspeed GP Porsche kept the lead as the Safety Car was called with less than a lap complete.
 
The whole Lap 1 mess opened the way for the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche to take the Pro Cup lead and the second place overall, but Patric Niederhauser wasn’t closing down on Bastian Buus, and in fact, he was falling down to Dylan Pereira, who was bringing the rest of the field with him and his No. 66 Attempto Audi, but since Pereira’s progress got stuck too, he fell to fourth once the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi of Gilles Magnus took the risk and made a move at Tarzanbocht.
 
With the Bronze Cup cars having minimum pit time unlike the Pro Cup and Gold Cup cars, the No. 89 eventually fell to ninth overall, just ahead of the Silver Cup leading No. 99 Attempto Audi, while the No. 96 Porsche took the lead and Paul Evrard was doing his best to defend the second place for the No. 25, which would secure an easy Gold Cup win, though he had the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini and the No. 48 Winward Mercedes all over the back wing of the Audi, with Jordan Pepper completing the move a lap later to start the chase for the No. 96.
 
While Pepper worked a lot to crush the gap to Sven Müller, with some cooperation from the traffic, the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche never got threatened until the finish line, with almost six seconds to the second placed No. 63 GRT Lamborghini.
 
GTWC Europe - Zandvoort Race 1 results
 
Behind the third placed No. 48 Winward Mercedes, the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi kept the Gold Cup win, while the next class winner only appeared at the end of the top 10, with the No. 99 Attempto Audi being protected by the battling Gold Cup entries behind it. The Bronze Cup winner was the No. 89 Lionspeed GP Porsche, but the car was barely kept inside the top 20 overall.
 

The Sunday race had both Emil Frey Ferraris in the front row and racing side by side for a good portion of the first lap, until common sense prevailed and Ben Green got the preference, putting the No. 14 car in the lead while the No. 69 car was on the defensive from the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini.
 
While Chris Lulham was defending from Jordan Pepper, Green was penalized due to a jump start, which would turn the battle for second into the battle for the lead, but the problem is that Lulham also received a starting line penalty, and holding the pack behind them wouldn’t be benefical as the time penalty would send them down the table.
 
Kinda surprisingly, it was the majority of the Silver Cup field that went first to serve the mandatory pit stop, and once the cycle was completed, the No. 32 WRT BMW was thrown into the lead thanks to the Belgian team’s characteristic excellence in pit stops, with the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi leading the Silver Cup from second overall, while the No. 63 got stuck in third again.
 
The narrow nature of the circuit and the similar pace of the field never allowed the Pro Cup cars to go past the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi, which eventually won the Silver Cup from second overall, while Charles Weerts just had to build some cushion on his stint to secure the overall win for the No. 32 WRT BMW.
 
GTWC Europe - Zandvoort Race 2 results
 
Despite the 10 second penalty, the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari still had enough of a gap to win the Gold Cup, while the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari recovered from the messy Race 1 to win in the Bronze Cup.
 
Weerts and van der Linde (No. 32) lead the Sprint Cup standings with 37.5 points against 33 from Müller and Niederhauser (No. 96) and 32.5 from Auer and Engel (No. 48). The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup will return after the 24 Hours of Spa, with Misano hosting the third double header of the season on 19 and 20 July.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP