Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus drove to victory in Magny-Cours during the second race of the GT World Challenge Powered by AWS Sprint Cup. Feller was on the hunt for Christopher Haase, but didn’t manage to catch him. Lionspeed GP came out on top after all.
A strategic masterclass by the German outfit, who were competitive from the beginning. It was clear that a good result was in there after qualifying, and the race proved it. The opening stint was exiting for many, with some incidents, a red flag and a tricky pit window keeping every team on their toes.
In the first lap, Haase in the #84 Audi R8 LMS GT3 lost one place to the #59 McLaren 720s GT3, throwing him right on the hunting line of the #80 Porsche. Feller opted for clever racing lines, but Haase is not a driver you can trick easily. “It was fun!” Feller tells GT REPORT after the race.
“I think there aren’t many people in this sport who have spent more days on the racetrack like Haase. And every fight is always super fun with him. I was looking forward to a fight, but unfortunately I couldn’t manage to start a proper one,” Feller smiles. After the red flag, it didn’t take long before the frontrunners went for a pitstop, where Feller swapped with Buus.
Important race for the championship
In the last stint to the finish, Buus managed the gap steadily and brough the car home. “I tried to stay as close to Haase as possible, and then Bastian didn’t make any mistakes in his stint,” the Swiss driver continues. “The team did an amazing job in the pits, and that’s where we won the race,” Feller points out.
The #80 Porsche came in on the same lap as the #59 McLaren, stopping earlier than both Audi and Aston Martin ahead. It seemed to be the one of the keys to this race win – an important one, looking at the championship standings. “We keep pushing now,” he continues. “It was a very important step in the championship today.
“Now we just have to keep it up, score points in every race from now,” Feller concludes. It was a horrible weekend for WRT, with a P7 in Race 1 and a disqualification after Qualifying 2 and then a DNF in Race 2. A big chunk of points missing for the Van der Linde-Weerts duo, who will need to be on top of their game in the next Sprint weekends.
