It was a chaotic Sunday on the Nürburgring, where incidents caused Full Course Yellows and even a Safety Car. Multiple cars didn’t finish the race in the Eifel. Success was achieved by some, while others leave the weekend already thinking ahead to the next race. GT REPORT debriefs with Alex Aka, Colin Caresani and Kobe Pauwels.
Penalties late in the race shook up the hierarchy of the field and brought the #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 the win in the Gold Cup. Aka, Dylan Pereira and Andrea Frassineti brought the car home and kept their heads cool during crucial moments. “It was not too bad!” Aka tells GT REPORT after the podium.
He carries the big, well-deserved trophy in his arms: “I had some nice battles as well. It was fun. In the end, Dylan brought it home. I’m really delighted with this one, finally getting a result in endurance this year,” he adds. The sister car, the #66 Audi, already grabbed a win in Monza earlier this year.
Now it’s time for the other side of the garage to celebrate. “I’m really, really happy. In the end it [the chaos of the race] was just business as usual. Once I got out, I realized how tired I was, so I just wanted to get the trophy, get the four-hour drive home done and get some rest! I’ll enjoy this one a lot.”
Grupo Prom Racing finds positives in difficult weekend
For others, the weekend has been a bit tougher than expected. Nevertheless, Caresani is usually someone who can still find some positive points to take into the next race weekend, which will be the last Endurance Cup round for the crew of the #177 Grupo Prom Mercedes-AMG GT3.
“We started the weekend really well. We’ve had some difficultes with higher ride heights, and this weekend we could lower the car a little [due to BoP, ed.]. That helped us hugely,” Caresani explains. “We were very strong on Friday and Saturday, but we needed to keep in mind that the setup has to work for all three of us drivers.”
Unavoidably, that means some compromises had to be made. Grupo Prom Racing accepted that and made the best of the situation. “We still had a good feeling about the race. Unfortunately, we experienced a spin in the first stint and the car hit the wall, which caused damage to the splitter. The downforce loss was significant, which made it difficult.”
While Caresani, Alfredo Hernandez and Stephane Tribaudini didn’t get the result they aimed for, Caresani still looks at the race day positively. “We’ve just raced and done a long run. That was very interesting to find new things – which we will use to improve for Portimao.”
Comtoyou Racing aims for good last phase of the season
A couple of garages over, Kobe Pauwels of the #21 Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 celebrated the win of the sister car. The #7 Aston Martin grabbed pole earlier on Sunday, and finished it off with a victory. A great result for the Comtoyou Racing garage, although the race day was also quite hectic for Pauwels.
The Belgian needed some medical care for some small issues before he hopped into the car, but he emphasizes he felt completely okay when it was time for his stint. “Because of that, I actually don’t know what happened with the chaos in the race, but I do know that we fell back to P10 at some point,” he says.
“We managed to climb back to P5. I’m happy with that. Looking at where I was earlier this day and then finishing in P5 is quite good! I feel okay and now we’re focusing on the next weekend, which is Zandvoort,” Pauwels continues. It will almost be a home race for him, and he will be sharing the car with race winner Nicki Thiim again.
“He won today, so I hope he keeps this spirit up!” Pauwels laughs. “Maybe we can clinch our first win of the season there [in the Sprint Cup] too. During this weekend at the Nürburgring, both cars went their separate ways with the set-up. The #7 was of course very fast, so I think we will learn from this too. That’s important, also for Portimao.”
