AF Corse Ferrari Victorious in Brands Hatch Race 1

Photo: JEP/SRO

Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril took victory in the opening GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup race of the season at Brands Hatch, using an undercut strategy to defeat Garage 59 and Emil Frey Racing.

Abril took the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 across the line with a margin of 0.658 seconds over Benjamin Goethe’s No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, with Chris Lulham third in the No. 69 Ferrari.

Lulham’s co-driver Thierry Vermeulen led the opening segment of the race from pole position, opening up a gap of over two seconds to the No. 59 McLaren started by Marvin Kirchhoefer.

The German moved up to second place at the start but was unable to attack the Dutchman, with the No. 51 Ferrari in third with Rovera at the wheel.

Vermeulen and Kirchhoefer then pitted as soon as the window for the mandatory stop opened to hand over to Lulham and Goethe, remaining in the same order.

However, they were both leapfrogged after the No. 51 Ferrari stayed out a lap later, made a quicker pitstop and emerged out front with Abril now at the wheel.

Lulham attempted to challenge Abril into Druids, with the Monegasque driver slamming the door shut and briefly putting the No. 69 Ferrari with two wheels on the grass.

This gave Goethe the opportunity to attack and wrestle second place away from Lulham at Graham Hill Bend, with the order then remaining the same until the finish.

Vermeulen and Lulham also picked up the class victory in Gold Cup in the process.

Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen took fourth in the second Emil Frey Ferrari, as the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo competed the top five driven by Lucas Auer and Maro Engel.

Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde finished sixth in the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with the South African completing a late-race overtake on the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren of Adam Smalley and Louis Prette.

A five-second penalty for a pitlane speeding infringement dropped the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Sven Mueller and Patric Niederhauser to ninth in the final results.

They were classified one spot ahead of the No. 78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in the hands of Hugo Cook and Sandy Mitchell.

Notably, a post-race penalty resulted in a change of winners in Silver Cup, as the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari of Marcos Siebert and Jef Machiels was promoted.

Initially, Loek Hartog and Eshan Pieris took the win in the No. 97 Rutronik Racing Porsche, thanks in large part to a strong opening stint from Hartog that saw the Dutchman climb six positions and grab the lead in class.

Sprint Cup newcomer and co-driver Pieris had held on to the class lead in the second stint, but a five-second penalty for not having a wheel flat on the ground during the pitstop dropped them off the class podium altogether.

Of note, the No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini served a drivethrough penalty after Jordan Pepper tagged the No. 21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jamie Day into a spin.

That came as part of a race that had seen both of the Grasser Lamborghinis start from the back after they were excluded from both of Saturday’s qualifying sessions for not being in conformity with the Balance of Performance set by SRO Motorsports Group.

The second and final Sprint Cup race of the weekend is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. BST (10:45 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Race 1