The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup opener at Brands Hatch was quite the roller coaster, with penalties changing the outcome on Saturday in favor of the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, while the Sunday saw a fierce battle entirely on track, which was won by the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3R of Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller.
Lionspeed GP had the pole for Race 1, and Ricardo Feller put the No. 80 Porsche in favorable position while the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes harassed the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari. In the melee collection happening behind Feller, a miscommunication between Aurelien Panis and Robin Knutsson pit maneuvered and threw the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche with violence into the barriers, triggering the Safety Car entrance for track clearance and barrier repairs due to the heavy impact.
With the barrier repairs needing more work, the red flag was brought for 15 minutes, and after some Safety Car laps, the race was resumed with the No. 80 still in the lead and the No. 50 coming with the chasing group. Eventually, the top two detached themselves from the chasers as Daniel Juncadella’s No. 3 had the mirrors full of cars, with the Spanish acting as a sort of a bottleneck of the field.
Feller led a stack of Pro Cup and Gold Cup cars into the pit lane as soon as the window opened, with AF Corse and Verstappen Racing acting later and outsmarting Lionspeed GP, as the No. 3 took the lead with the No. 50 on its back and the No. 80 losing the third position to the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, though the situation got worse for the No. 80 as it went down to an effective sixth position in only two laps.
Despite the full course yellow due to a stopped No. 99 Attempto Audi, the top three cars were together as Chris Lulham had Thomas Neubauer and Dorian Boccolacci on his back, being protected by Brands Hatch’s tight nature.
While the situation wasn’t changed on track and the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes received the checkered flag first, a pit stop positioning infringement and a yellow flag infringement penalized the car in more than 30 seconds, handing the overall win to the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari. The No. 9 PURE Porsche won the Silver Cup, with the Gold Cup winning No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari right behind it.
GTWC Europe - Brands Hatch Race 1 results
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The No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche kept the lead once the second race started, despite the pressure from the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes, but with Chris Lulham having to deal with Maro Engel in the No. 48 Winward Mercedes, Bastian Buus had some room to breathe for a while.
Buus was keeping the fast pace and detaching the No. 80 from the leading pack, with the No. 3 also leaving the rest of the field behind as Lulham wasn’t that pressured by Engel. With the situation remaining on a status quo, the pit stops were the best bet to get some positions, but Verstappen Racing covered well from Winward Racing, meaning that Daniel Juncadella had his attention on the No. 80, but with Lionspeed GP working well and having some gap in their favor, the top positions remained as they were in the first stint.
Juncadella tried his best in the remaining minutes to crush the gap to Ricardo Feller, but the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche remained in control of the race to win it overall with three seconds to spare. The No. 30 WRT BMW won the Silver Cup with ease, while the No. 555 CSA McLaren won the Gold Cup, keeping all class winners inside the overall top 10.
GTWC Europe - Brands Hatch Race 2 results
Feller and Buus (No. 80) have the lead in the Sprint Cup standings with 18.5 points, while Leclerc and Neubauer (No. 50) have 16.5 and Engel and Auer (No. 48) have 13.5.
The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup calendar will return only in July with the Misano races on the 18th and 19th. Before that, the Endurance Cup will be in full action, with the test days for the 24 Hours of Spa, the full day race itself and the second Endurance Cup race at Monza in between them.
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP
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