Rutronik gets Endurance Cup title while WRT are crowned GTWC Europe champions

Garage 59 had a dominant run in the final race of the GT World Challenge Europe season, but no one expected that it would be the No. 58 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo from the Gold Cup, though it would be the trio from the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R to celebrate the Endurance Cup title, while WRT’s No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 Evo crew conquered the overall GTWC Europe title.
 

Garage 59 had control of all classes they entered with their McLarens in the Qualifying, with two of them locking the front row, with the Gold Cup leading No. 58 McLaren controlling the actions while the Safety Car was called due to multiple crashes in the first lap.
 
The No. 17 Getspeed Mercedes took the brief Safety Car period to get infiltrated in between the Garage 59 domination, with Jules Gounon guiding it to the Pro Cup lead, while the current scenario was actually benefical to Dean MacDonald in the No. 58, as the next Gold Cup car, the No. 23 RJN McLaren, was ten positions down the order.
 
A Safety Car period near the end of the first hour changed the plans for some teams, which impacted in the race order on track, with the No. 5 Optimum McLaren taking the overall and Gold Cup leads ffrom the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren, with the No. 777 Al Manar BMW being in third and leading the chasing pack from the other manufacturers.
 
While most of the second hour went normally, the No. 88 Attempto Audi sustain pretty bad crash damage in the front, bringing a full course yellow while the teams were in the second regular stops. The No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren regained the lead, but Louis Prette still had Jens Klingmann and the No. 777 Al Manar BMW behind him, showing an unusual occasion where Gold Cup cars were fighting for overall honors rather than limiting aspirations to the class win.
 
Eventually, Klingmann got into Raffaele Marciello’s radar and the No. 98 ROWE BMW quickly passed the No. 777 for second, but it wasn’t in time to consider reaching the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren, which remained in control of the rest of the race to confirm the win. The No. 777 even regained the overall second in the Final Lap, making it again a Gold Cup 1-2 overall.
 
GTWC Europe - Barcelona race results
 
The No. 98 ROWE BMW was the best car from the Pro Cup and completed the overall podium, while the No. 99 Attempto Audi was dominant in the Silver Cup by a large margin, finishing in the overall top five. Flirting with the overall top 10, the No. 97 Rutronik Porsche won the Bronze Cup by a considerable margin too.
 

The trio Picariello/Müller/Niederhauser (No. 96) took the Endurance Cup title by a point over the trio Cairoli/Engel/Auer (No. 48), with the final result being 73 vs. 72 points for the Rutronik Racing car. The overall GTWC Europe title went for Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde, as they ended with 151,5 points over the 148,5 of Auer and Engel.
 

The trio Vermeulen/King/Lulham from Verstappen.com Racing lifted the Endurance Cup Gold Cup title, while in the Silver Cup the title went Century Motorsport’s trio Waberski/Moore/Jansen, and in the Bronze Cup, the title went to Kessel Racing’s trio Laursen/Marschall/Blattner.
 
Vermeulen and Lulham also conquered the GTWC Europe title in the Gold Cup, while Boutsen VDS’ Cesar Gazeau and Aurélien Panis were the title winners in the Silver Cup. Blatter and Marschall brought the GTWC Europe Bronze Cup title to Kessel Racing too.
 
There will be no action for GTWC Europe until April in 2026, when test days and the first round will be held at Paul Ricard.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP