The story of the FIA
GT World Cup wasn’t too much
different from the Qualifying Race, as the race that was held in the
streets of Macau, in a win that wasn’t only of Maro Engel, but also
a true team achievement for the Mercedes AMG Driver Academy squad.
The green flag was
out and Edoardo Mortara
pulled ahead of the competition, but right after the first corner he
just saw the Mercedes duo of Maro Engel
and Renger van der Zande
breeze past everybody to be first and second.
Stefan Mücke took third place after a
four-wide battle between Audis and Aston Martins, being followed by
Mortara as he failed to pass van der Zande from the outside. Out of
the lead battle, Richard Lyons
just gets tapped to the runoff area while 24 Hours of Le Mans winner
Earl Bamber
loses control and hits the barriers with the back of his Porsche.
The Mercedes
AMG Driver Academy duo started to play
with strategy as they did last year, where one of the cars
disappeared in front while the other acted as a shield against the
opposition, roles that respectively were from race leader Maro Engel
and second-placed Renger van der Zande, and unfortunately, van der
Zande’s job wasn’t that easy with a charging Stefan Mücke in the
pressure with Edoardo Mortara and René Rast a few meters later.
On Lap 9,
backmarkers started to appear in front of the lead pack, and this
would play an important role into a circuit as difficult as the Guia
Circuit. Engel wasn’t keeping the strong pace he started, but the
two seconds of gap he had for van der Zande still kept him
comfortable right ahead.
Out of nowhere,
smoke came from van der Zande’s car as bodywork rubbed on his right
rear tire while he received extreme pressure from Mücke. Before
entering the twisty part of the circuit, the CRAFT-Bamboo
driver tried his move from the outside but failed to succeed, and
then in the inside, Mortara and Rast just passed van der Zande and
let enough room for Mücke to come along.
On lap 14, Safety
Car entered on track due to the crash of Vuttikhorn
Inthraphuvasak, and while that,
Mercedes AMG team manager was called to meet the race control about
restarting procedures. Then, on lap 16, John Shen’s Porsche gets
stuck in the wall and caused a huge traffic jam, which brought the
red flag, and with only three laps to go and too much work to be made
to clear the track, the track stewards decided to call it a day,
giving the first FIA GT World Cup title to Maro Engel and Mercedes
AMG.
PHOTO: FIA GT World Cup
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