GT World Challenge Europe visited France again this weekend to have its Sprint Cup round at Magny-Cours, and while the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper had pace to control the weekend, they only had one race win in their hands, as Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe put the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo on top on Sunday after holding the Saturday night winners, cementing their place in the Sprint Cup title fight.
The Saturday sunset had the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini leading the way over the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche and the rest of the field that was fighting for a position to settle in, with some spinning cars being the early victims but only brief local yellow flags being waved until a crash eliminated the No. 64 HRT Mustang and the No. 99 Attempto Audi, bringing in the Safety Car.
Nearly ten minutes were needed to clean the house and let the cars go again, with the No. 111 CSA McLaren being handed a penalty due to collision. Once the pits were done, Rutronik Racing was able to outsmart GRT and put the No. 96 in the lead, but the problem for Sven Müller was that Jordan Pepper was still all over his rear wing.
A moment of distraction from Müller after a full course yellow gave the opening that Pepper wanted, with the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini taking over the lead again, and with the No. 96 Rutronik Porsche not matching the pace of the car ahead, Pepper just had to push to keep position and then bring the car home to victory.
GTWC Europe - Magny-Cours Race 1 results
The No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren dominated the Gold Cup, with the No. 21 Comtoyou Aston Martin doing the same in the Silver Cup, just behind the Gold Cup winners. The No. 89 Lionspeed GP Porsche conquered the Bronze Cup.
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Sunday saw the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren moving to the lead and Marvin Kirchhöfer pushing hard to move away from the Race 1 winner while Thierry Vermeulen was behind them and defending in all ways possible the third position overall for the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari, finding new lines to keep the No. 32 WRT BMW at bay.
Initially, the gaps between the top 3 weren’t passing from a single second, but as the time passed, the No. 59 opened a proper gap to the No. 63 and the No. 69, with Garage 59 and GRT choosing to call the leaders early in the pit window to stop, while Vermeulen was allowing himself another lap on clean air to deliver the best situation on track for Chris Lulham once the No. 69 was back.
The last car to stop was the No. 21 Comtoyou Aston Martin, with Jamie Day trying an overcut to get as much clean air time possible to protect from the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes, a strategy that worked really well for their side. Further ahead, Lulham received a bad surprise in form of a rear right puncture, eliminating the No. 69 the overall contention, as well from the Gold Cup as the class lead was handed to the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi.
Benjamin Goethe had only Luca Engstler on his heels, but in this German speaking battle, Engstler wasn’t holding back, launching a barrage of attacks on the No. 59 as the No. 63 had a clear pace advantage. At that point, the track’s narrow nature was helping Goethe the most, with the strategy becoming trying to tire Engstler out and consume his tires until he gets unable to attack.
A full course yellow with 10 minutes to go helped Goethe in his defense, and with the track clearing taking almost all the remaining time, Goethe had two laps to mount a barrier in front of Engstler. With the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini finding gaps but Engstler opting to not take full risk in a move, Goethe tightened the line of the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren and won the race by 0.156 seconds.
GTWC Europe - Magny-Cours Race 2 results
The No. 25 Sainteloc Audi had gap to spare to the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren and secured the Gold Cup on the second stint, while the No. 21 Comtoyou Aston Martin made the late pitwork pay dividends and won the Silver Cup. The No. 81 Winward Mercedes needed 0.7 seconds to hold the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari to secure Bronze Cup honors.
Weerts and van der Linde (No. 32) hold the Sprint Cup lead with 72 points, but the 70.5 points from Goethe and Kirchhöfer (No. 59) put them as WRT’s biggest threat, with Müller and Niederhauser (No. 96) having 63.5 points and Auer and Engel (No. 48) having 62.5, keeping them in contention for the title.
The Sprint Cup season ends at Valencia, as the Circuito Ricardo Tormo says goodbye to the series on 20 and 21 September.
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP
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