GTWC Le Castellet: Verstappen-Mercedes goes airborne in 4-wide

– Comtoyou Racing took victory in the closing stages of the race at the season opener of the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC) at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet (France). The #7 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi provided fans with a spectacular final phase and took the lead less than ten minutes before the finish.

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The #48 Mercedes-AMG Team (Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz, Maro Engel), which started from pole position and was still in the lead at the start of the final 60-minute stint, dominated the majority of the six-hour race. A clear victory seemed inevitable.

However, a late safety car deployment bunched the field back together. Nevertheless, the Aston Martin had a difficult path to victory ahead of it. Thiim had to overtake several lapped vehicles and close a gap of more than three seconds to Auer.

The Dane drove in his usual aggressive manner, made short work of the traffic and quickly closed in on the leader. Auer defended resolutely when Thiim launched his first attack at the end of the Mistral straight.

One lap later, the Aston Martin made a second attempt. This time, Thiim took advantage of a small mistake by the Austrian to make the overtake, prompting the Comtoyou mechanics to jump from their seats in celebration.

The victory was all the more remarkable as the Aston Martin suffered a puncture at the end of the first stint. Sorensen was able to pit just in time. It was the team’s first victory since the 24 Hours of Spa in 2024.

Third place was secured by the #58 Garage 59 McLaren with Benjamin Goethe, Louis Prette and Tom Fleming. Fourth place went to last year’s winner, the #32 WRT BMW. Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts fought their way forward from tenth on the grid.

Four cars side-by-side on the Mistral straight

At times it looked as if Mercedes-AMG could take all three podium places, but the #17 GetSpeed car and the #3 2 Seas car, racing under the name Verstappen Racing, could not keep up with the pace of the leading Winward team.

Both cars were overtaken in the second hour by a sensational double maneuver on the Mistral straight. That was the scene of the race. In the slipstream of three cars, Gounon in the Verstappen Mercedes pulled to the right and hit a curb.

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The curb launched the Mercedes, which then flew through the air. At that point, four cars were racing side-by-side at top speed down the famous Mistral straight. Fortunately, the vehicles did not touch and everyone was able to continue.

The #3 Verstappen Mercedes with Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Chris Lulham finished in ninth place. Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll made his first guest appearance in a GT3 car. He shared the #18 Comtoyou Aston Martin with Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya.

After the #18 qualified 15th on the grid, the team’s race was ruined by penalties. The three drivers accumulated a total of 465 penalty seconds, dropping them to last place in their class.

The final result was 16th place out of 18 registered vehicles (with two retirements) and only 48th place in the overall results. The trio finished the race five laps behind 47th place and twelve laps behind the winner. In the run-up, Stroll had spoken of a “possible victory”.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi finished the season opener one lap down in twelfth place overall. The Italian shared the #46 WRT BMW with Daniel Harper and Max Hesse.

The race at Paul Ricard began with a dramatic start accident involving several cars. The #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche and the #555 CSA Racing McLaren retired as a result. The drivers were uninjured.

The GT World Challenge Europe will continue on 2. and 3. May with the first Sprint Cup round in Brands Hatch (Great Britain).

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