The crew of Boguslavsky became the second in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup season

At the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste, the season of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup ended with two races of the final round. Timur Boguslavsky and Raffaele Marchiello from the AKKodis ASP Team fought to the last for the title with the reigning champions, but in the end they took second place in the overall standings.

The fate of the title was decided by the first race of the stage. Boguslavsky started the race from 19th place, got ahead of several rivals and passed the car to Marchiello in 11th position. The Italian had to win back five positions in 20 minutes of the race in order to keep the chances for the title, but part of the time was lost due to yellow flags, and part due to the desperate resistance of Patrick Niederhauser from Saintéloc Racing.

Marchiello and Boguslavsky eventually finished in seventh position and lost their chances to catch up with Charles Wirts and Dries Vanthor in the overall standings – the Team WRT crew on Audi No. 32 won the third consecutive championship title in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. At the same time, the pilots of AKKodis ASP Team secured the second place in the overall standings one race before the end of the 2022 season.

Race 1 was won by Ulysses de Pau and Pierre-Alexandre Jean in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3, while Simon Gachet and Christopher Haase shared the Audi R8 LMS evo II GT3 in the Tresor by Car Collection in second place. We also note that Kasper Stevenson and Thomas Drouet climbed the podium – the second crew of AKKodis ASP Team finished eighth, but won bronze in the Silver Cup standings. Two more AKKodis ASP Team cars fell short of the top 10: Jim Pla and Tristan Vautier finished 13th, while Petru Razvan Umbrarescu and Igor Valilko retired after nine laps.

The second race started on a wet track after the rain – and in these conditions Marcello was not equal: the Italian started from pole position and by the time of the pit stop he was 14 seconds ahead of the peloton. By the middle of the distance, the asphalt was almost dry, and Boguslavsky on the “rain” tires was no longer able to maintain the pace of his partner – on the last lap, the Russian was ahead of Charles Wirths, who was on “slicks” and was a few seconds ahead of the circle.

Second place in the photo finish went to Aurélien Panis, Niederhauser’s teammate in the Saintéloc Racing crew, while Timur Boguslavsky took third place. Note that for the Russian and his partner Raffaele Marchiello, this is the eighth podium in ten races of the 2022 season.

Kasper Stevenson and Thomas Drouet were again third in the Silver Cup and eighth overall, Jim Pla paired up with Tristan Vautier this time in 12th place, and Umbrarescu and Valilko finished the race in 18th position.

Sprint Cup. The final position in the standings of the pilots (top 8):

1. S. Wirts / D. Vanthor (Team WRT No. 32 Audi) – 135.5 points.

2. T. Boguslavsky / R. Marchiello (AKKodis ASP Team No. 89 Mercedes-AMG) – 111.5.

3. S. Gachet / K. Haase (Tresor by Car Collection No. 11 Audi) – 67.

4. W. de Po / P.-A. Jean (AF Corse No. 53 Ferrari) – 62.5.

5. D. Pla (AKKodis ASP Team No. 88 Mercedes-AMG) – 54.

6. P. Niederhauser / O. Panis (Saintéloc Racing No. 25 Audi) – 49.5.

7. J. Gounon (AKKodis ASP Team No. 88 Mercedes-AMG) – 41.5.

8. D. Marshall / P. Schothorst (Attempto Racing No. 66 Audi) – 30.

The new season of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup kicks off April 29-30, 2023 at Brands Hatch in England. At the same time, there is one more Endurance Cup stage left until the end of the unified season of GT World Challenge Europe, and Marchiello will come to it as the leader of the drivers standings.