Photos by: Felix Zech – motor.sport.gallery
GT World Challenge Brands Hatch
Sprint Season kicks off in sunny Brands Hatch!
The Sprint Season of the GT World Challenge Europe kicked of in Brands Hatch like the past years with an action packed weekend on the demanding classic British Circuit. With the new Pro Class Porsche by Lionspeed topping both Qualifying Sessions, the target was clear for the #80 Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (Feller/Buus). Get a really nice start into the Sprint Cup Season. Feller was followed by the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO (Leclerc/Neubauer) and the very strong Silver Class Polesitter of Team WRT with the #30 BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Lismont/Montenegro).
Race 1
As always in Brands Hatch the first corners were dominate by several cars being side by side all over the field and drivers shuffling for Positions. It took 2 corners before the first car got spun in the mid pack. The real major moment of lap one though came in the approach of the penultimate turn. The #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (Knoutsson/Magnus) got rear ended under braking quite heavily by the #914 Razoon – more than Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (Birch/Gustavsen) and sent into the outside wall hard. Race direction directly deployed the Safety Car. The damage on the guardrails was so severe that the race had to be red flagged just minutes later with 55 minutes on the clock.
The repairs were done very quickly and the Race got underway behind the Safety Car before the field was released back to racing with still just over 50 minutes to run. Feller nailed the restart and escaped from Arthur Leclerc. Dani Juncadella made up a Position at the inaugural start and restarted the #3 Mercedes AMG Team Verstappen Racing (Juncadella/Lulham) in third. As we know from GT World Challenge Racing, the field was very closely matched and overtaking was difficult. The top two cars were able to break away from Juncadella in third who was chased by a number of cars behind.
Approaching the Pit Window, Juncadella was able to close the gap down again. Feller was the first one to blink and hand over the #80 car to Bastian Buus. A lap later Arthur Leclerc followed and gave way to Thomas Neubauer, who comfortably rejoined ahead of Buus. In front of all of them though Chris Lulham rejoined the track in his #3 Mercedes AMG GT3. As all Pro cars now done their stops it was time fot the Silver class cars to do their mandatory stop as well. A quirk of the tight Pitlane in Brands Hatch, that sees the Pit Window split in two.
After every car served their stop a Full Course Yellow was called because of the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS EVO2 (Pereira/Aka) had a puncture and was beached in the gravel exiting the penultimate corner. While the recovery took place the former leading #80 Porsche was pulled back into the pit box because of a technical fault. Gone was Race one for the Lionspeed crew.
The Full Course Yellow was removed with roughly 20 minutes to go and Lulham chased closely by Neubauer.
As the mid pack battled hard Race Control noted an infringement during the Pitstop of the #3 car. One mechanic was still over the white line when the car was released from the pit spot. Race Control imposed a 5 second time penalty. Lulham, at that time leading by a bit over 4 seconds, now had to find roughly a second in the two remaining laps, to still win Race 1. Lulham pushed hard and created a gap bigger than 5 seconds before the end of Race 1! Joy thoug was short lived as a post race penalty for improving laptime under yellow flags meant that a 30 seconds drive through penalty was applied after the race.
This meant that the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO (Leclerc/Neubauer) won Race 1 followed by the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R (Schuring/Boccolacci) and the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Weerts/K. van der Linde). Gold class was won by the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO (Mosca/Zagazeta) and Silver class was won by the very strong #30 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Lismont/Montenegro).
Race 2
In Race 2 the same shuffling and fighting for Positions on the opening Lap was on display again. This time though luckily without any major crashes. The #80 Lionspeed Porsche again decided the start phase in their favor and Buus created a small gap right from the green flag. Lap 2 saw a spin for the #914 Razoon – more than Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (Birch/Gustavsen) but the car was able to continue.
As fighting intensified the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS EVO2 (Pereira/Aka) again hit trouble. Boccolacci in the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche 911 GT3 R (Schuring/Boccolacci) misjudged his braking for turn 1 a slight bit and Aka in the Audi took the invitation to sneak up the inside. The Porsche Driver though shot back on to the track with a bit too much energy hitting the Audi and subsequently causing steering damage for the then leading Gold class squad. A Weekend to forget for the #99 crew.
While the Pit Window approached the Silver class cars this time were first to pit, contrary to Race 1. When the Overall leaders then took their turn to change Tires and Drivers, Positions shuffled a lot. With an unusual slow stop for Team WRT standards the #32 lost out to both sister cars. While the #32 lost out in the pitstops, the sister car #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Hesse/Rossi) jumped the #32 and the #59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S EVO (MacDonald/Kirchhöfer) and climed up to fourth. Feller took over the #80 Porsche and had a 5 second cushion to play with.
The #71 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO (Bennett/Hirsinger)got turned around while fighting with the #77 KPX Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Rappange/Pittard) eliminating them from a good Silver class position. The #48 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO (Auer/Engel) was given a penalty for the same Pitstop infringement as the #3 car in Race 1. Third was now at risk for the #48.
As in Race 1 the Mercedes showed good pace on the long run, closing the gap to the leading Porsche. Closing though was not enough as the #80 Lionspeed Porsche 911 GT3 R EVO (Feller/Buus) crossed the finish line to win Race 2 from Pole Position. Second and without a penalty this time the #3 Mercedes AMG Team Verstappen Racing (Juncadella/Lulham) secured a Podium for the new Team and in third the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO (Auer/Engel) completed the Podium. Silver class was again won by the #30 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Lismont/Montenegro) and the Gold class was won by #555 CSA Racing McLaren 720S EVO (Andriolo/Gachet).
Next up for the GT World Challenge is the second Sprint Cup weekend in Misano.
Photos by: Felix Zech – motor.sport.gallery
