Engel wins chaotic FIA GT World Cup Main Race

Three manufacturers were showing potential to take the 2024 FIA GT World Cup, but BMW’s hopes and dreams were washed with the rain as contact on Dries Vanthoor and a mistake from Raffaele Marciello played against them, with the latter also eliminating Ferrari’s favorite Antonio Fuoco and handing the Main Race win at Macau on a plate to the No. 130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel.
 
The rain came back on Sunday with the intensity showing during the Free Practice, which forced the cancellation of the Macau Motorcycle Race and got in the way of the Roadsport Challenge Establishment Cup and TCR World Tour, and four laps of Safety Car were needed to assess the situation and confirm that the rain eased off.
 
Once the green flag was waved, while Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor were comfortable in front, Antonio Fuoco had an early scare as Maro Engel came with force on the outside at Mandarin, almost completing the move at Lisboa, although the grip didn’t allow the German to have the deciding push for third place.
 
Marciello still had some advantage in his hands, but Vanthoor was suffering with the pressure from a variety of machines behind him, in special Fuoco’s Ferrari 296 GT3, which was acing in the twisty bits of the circuit and was having better corner exit. Once it was clear that Vanthoor’s BMW had a loose rear end, the Ferrari attacked and took second place at Fisherman’s, with the situation getting much worse for Vanthoor as he understeered straight to the armco, knackering the BMW’s suspension in the process.
 
Fuoco’s Ferrari was agile and stable, so he had pace to spare to attack Marciello too, and the problem for Marciello was that Fuoco was bringing Engel to the party, even though the sketch of a dry line was forming. Fuoco would need a decisive move to break Marciello’s defense, and Fuoco beats him in the brake challenge at the R Bend, but in the urge to block Marciello, both cars overcook the brakes and go straight at Lisboa, handing the lead to Engel on a plate with two laps to go.
 
In the Final Lap, Engel received a 5 second penalty for ramming Dries Vanthoor, but with more than 10 seconds to Augusto Farfus, the German just had to bring the No. 130 GMR Mercedes to the win. Sheldon van der Linde made an uneventful race to third place with the No. 31 WRT BMW.
 
FIA GT World Cup - Main Race results
 
Engel now has four GT wins at Macau, all of them in different eras - the first coming in the final year of the Macau GT Cup in 2014, the double coming in the first year of FIA GT World Cup in 2015, and the third one in 2022, when the Macau GT Cup name came back momentarily as a local race due to the COVID pandemic.
 
Mercedes leads comfortably as the most decorated manufacturer of the Macau GT race, with nine wins across all GT3 models built until today as Engel’s four wins join Raffaele Marciello’s two wins and a single victory from Edoardo Mortara, Ye Hongli and Darryl O’Young.
 
PHOTO: Mercedes AMG