It was an untroubled lights to flag win for Lucas Auer and Maro Engel in the second race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint at Brands Hatch. Driving the #48 Winward Racing MANN FILTER Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, the team won comfortably ahead of the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari and the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes team.

GTWCE BRANDS HATCH: QUALIFYING | RACE ONE | RACE TWO

Race two got underway with a clean and tidy start as all the cars got around Paddock Hill bend and into Druids safely.  Lucas Auer, starting from pole position, got away quickly and held onto the lead with Jules Gounon, driving the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, slipping in behind him.  Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 slipped into third place.

The issue that kept the #9 Mercedes out of race one had clearly been resolved by the Boutsen VDS team but at the front, Auer was still pulling away on each lap slowly building up the gap between himself and Gounon.

Behind Gounon a 3-way battle began to develop for third place with Vermeulen looking in his mirrors at Benjamin Goethe in the #159 Garage 59 McLaren 720s who in turn was being harried by Ricardo Feller in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8.

At the pit window, Goethe was one of the first to stop but the McLaren team lost 10 seconds which saw them leapfrogged by the #46 Team WRT BMW of Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi. With Rossi taking over the car, he soon had Tom Gamble in his rearview mirror looking to recover the position that was lost in the pit stop.

Race leader Auer was one of the last to stop, maximising his driving time and gaining the benefit of a clear pit lane to hand over to Maro Engel. With Auer building a 6-second gap back to Gounon, the Winward Racing team had a comfortable cushion in the pit stop and were able to get the car back out on track with a 4-second gap to the second-placed Giacomo Altoe in the #69 Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3.

The battle now was for sixth place with Rossi having to work hard to keep the McLaren of Gamble behind him, who in turn had race one winner, Dries Vanthoor, in the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 gaining on him.

Gamble found a way through at Graham Hill bend when Rossi had a slow exit out of Paddock Hill bend which left him compromised into Druids. Gamble chose his moment and eased past the BMW on the run down the Hill. This left the two Team WRT BMWs fighting for position.

Vanthoor eventually made a pass into Surtees which would have the WRT garage holding their breath. The pass however was clean and the pair continued but Gamble was by this point 6 seconds up the road and unlikely to be caught even by someone of the calibre of Vanthoor. Unfortunately for Rossi, a run through the gravel trap at Paddock Hill bend saw him drop multiple places. Reporting a steering problem, the car boxed at the end of the lap and was withdrawn.

Into the last quarter of the race, the next battle started to develop as a train started to form behind third-placed Max Götz in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes. Alex Aka in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and Ben Green in the #14 Emil Racing were all circulating within a few tenths of each other. Green looked the most likely to steal a position and as they ran towards the final minutes of the race the pack was joined by the McLaren of Tom Gamble. but the order didn’t change in the run to the chequered flag.

Gilles Magnus and Paul Evard won the gold class in the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi finishing in P9 overall and 5 seconds ahead of the second-placed #6 LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler Audi R8 of Max Hofer and Luca Engstler.

The Silver class win went to the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Thomas Fleming and Eliseo Donno who finished in P11 overall.

The next race in the series takes place in two weeks at the Misano circuit in Italy over the weekend of the 17th and 19th May.

 

 

 
 

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