Comtoyou wins at Nürburgring but Winward celebrates Endurance Cup title

Comtoyou Racing and their No. 7 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo had everything in their hands during the GT World Challenge Europe race at Nürburgring, with Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi doing their job and winning it, but it was far from enough effort to revert the odds in the Endurance Cup points table as Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz brought the Endurance Cup title to Winward Racing with a race to spare in the calendar.
 
The No. 7 Comtoyou Aston Martin kept the lead from pole but nearly lost it as the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche jumped to second before being denied of the position by the No. 17 Getspeed Mercedes. While there would be a big leading pack with constant defense of positions, some of them would try a move or another to gain a position, like how the No. 32 WRT BMW came to fifth place, but roughly, the top four stood in their positions during the whole first hour.
 
Lionspeed GP expected to gain big by bringing the No. 80 earlier than the rest, but with a full course yellow at the end of the hour, they were throw down to the middle of the field. The extra time that the leaders would enjoy with the Safety Car made it even more evident that the No. 80 stopped at the wrong time, with most of the frontrunning Pro Cup cars and even the leading Gold Cup ones staying roughly where they initially were. With the No. 97 Rutronik Porsche obliterating the No. 45 Rinaldi Ferrari off the track, another Safety Car intervention was triggered, keeping the leading group in their status quo.
 
In the restart, Charles Weerts had a go at Chris Lulham and the No. 32 passed the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes for fourth place, and when it was thought that the race would enter in a flow, another yellow is called as the No. 5 Optimum McLaren stopped with a missing tire, with things getting worse after the No. 44 Greystone GT McLaren ripping the left side of the No. 5.
 
The final cycle of pit stops took half of the final hour, and in a different strategy of the frontrunners, the No. 98 ROWE BMW took the lead with the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche right there in second. Behind the decision of the Pro Cup, the Silver Cup was favoring the No. 65 HRT Ford, as Niklas Kalus waited for the No. 30 WRT BMW to consume its tires to dispatch Ignacio Montenegro for the class lead, and a bit above them, the No. 99 Attempto Audi couldn’t shake off the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche for Gold Cup honors.
 
In the end, the No. 98’s fuel mileage run ended with 2 minutes to go as it had no fuel left and had to pit, and while the No. 2 had it in the tank, the potential of a drive time infringement penalty made Dorian Boccolacci back off, handing over the win to the No. 7 Comtoyou Aston Martin.
 
GTWC Europe - Nürburgring race results
 
Despite the close battles, especially in the final hour, once the class winners got the lead they never let it go, with the No. 99 Attempto Audi winning the Gold Cup and the No. 65 HRT Ford winning the Silver Cup, with Niklas Kalus bringing it home to a class win in his debut as a super sub.
 
The No. 222 2Seas Mercedes completed the list of class winners with an equally narrow Bronze Cup win.
 

Incredibly, the trio Auer/Engel/Stolz (No. 48) sealed the deal in the Endurance Cup with a race to go, scoring 86 points over the 59 of Thiim/Sorensen/Drudi (No. 7), a difficult feat to do in GT World Challenge Europe, let alone in the Pro Cup, with the addition that the No. 48 Winward Mercedes didn’t win a race to lift the title.
 
While the GT World Challenge Europe goes to Zandvoort on 19 and 20 September to resume the Sprint Cup, the Endurance Cup season finale will be only on 18 October as an one-off visit to Algarve.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP