GetSpeed’s home race in the Endurance Cup of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS produced mixed feelings. While Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dominik Baumann and Mikaël Grenier achieved a top result with second place in the Gold Cup, Jules Gounon, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz in the #2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 fell short of expectations with twelfth place. Anthony Bartone, James Kell and Yannick Mettler achieved a decent result in seventh place in the Silver Cup.
“The performance of Al Faisal, Dominik and Mikaël was a ray of hope on an otherwise rather disappointing race weekend at our home round, especially as they were moved back five places on the grid following a grid penalty due to an incident,” said Team Principal Adam Osieka. “We started with great ambitions. And the starting position after qualifying was rock solid. Unfortunately, the top car was involved in a collision early on, so we had no chance of converting the good performance into a satisfactory result.”
The race weekend at the Nürburgring started in rainy and difficult conditions on Friday and Saturday. In pre-qualifying on Saturday afternoon, the Bartone / Kell / Mettler trio drove to a sensational third place. In qualifying on Sunday morning, which took place in dry conditions, GetSpeed delivered a good performance. Gounon / Schiller / Stolz set the fifth-fastest time. Al Zubair / Baumann / Grenier took second place in the Gold category, Bartone / Kell / Mattler sixth in the Silver category.
Stolz was spun by an opponent immediately after the start when braking for turn three and dropped back a long way. In the competitive GTWC field, it was not possible to advance to the top again, even with a perfect strategy. Twelfth place meant zero points in the end. The two other driver trios confirmed their performance from qualifying in the race. Al Zubair / Baumann / Grenier confirmed second place in the Gold Cup standings with their podium finish.
The Endurance Cup of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS now heads into the big summer break. The next event will take place from September 20 to 22 in Monza, Italy.
