With two major crashes that wiped out a big part of the field, the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup race at Monza was more concentrated on survival rather than outright speed or strategic thinking, which is kind of ironic when thinking of a race at the Italian venue. Between the sparks, debris and even cars that flew over during the three hours, the No. 66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Rocco Mazzola, Sebastian Øgaard and Ariel Levi played the tactics right before the last incident to become another case of a Silver Cup entry winning outright at the Temple of Speed.
It was a rare pole position for a Ford Mustang GT3, but the No. 64 car and Arjun Maini didn’t count that the middle of the field would descend into chaos due to a touch by the No. 17 Getspeed Mercedes, which threw the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren into the No. 64, and the demolition derby eliminated many other cars and triggered an immediate Safety Car entry due to the extensive damage and the number of cars at the first chicane.
The race resumed 20 minutes later with the investigated No. 17 in the lead, and after nearly 20 minutes of green flag, Maxime Martin was penalized with a 3 minute Stop and Go for the first corner catastrophe, which promoted the No. 48 Winward Mercedes to the lead with the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche hot on its heels.
The number of Safety Car entries in the second hour made it a very complicated race, although the top positions remained the same until Winward Racing decided to stop the No. 48 with 10 minutes to start the final hour, promoting the No. 32 WRT BMW to the effective lead of the race.
In the final hour, the No. 23 RJN McLaren emerged as a surprise overall leader despite being a Silver Cup entry, staying on track for as long as possible to not need to pit, but the full course yellow didn’t come in time to save them, which promoted the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi and then the No. 66 Attempto Audi to the top. With seven minutes to go, the green flag was waved again, and when Winward Racing were preparing to swap position of the No. 87 and 48 Mercedes, a big crash at the first chicane triggered the Safety Car again, and with the Safety Car period consuming the remaining four minutes of racing, the No. 66 Attempto Audi was the overall and Silver Cup winner.
GTWC Europe - Monza race results
The No. 48 Winward Mercedes survived the final crash and won the Pro Cup from second overall after the No. 87 Winward Mercedes was swiped out of the position. Inside the overall top 10, the No. 74 Kessel Ferrari won a close contest for Bronze Cup honors, and in 15th overall, the No. 71 SCR Ferrari won the Gold Cup.
The No. 48 crew of Engel, Auer and Stolz holds the lead with 43 points, while the No. 7 crew of Thiim, Sorensen and Drudi has 33 points. Curiously, the Monza winning crew of Levi, Mazzola and Øgaard sits in third position in the Endurance Cup standings with the 25 points they got on Sunday, offering them a great opportunity to take the outright Endurance Cup points lead at the 24 Hours of Spa on 27 and 28 June.
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP
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