Ferrari crews win a double in the 1000 km Paul Ricard race

France hosted the second round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.

In France, the second stage of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup was held – the 6-hour marathon “1000 km Paul Ricard” and Ferrari cars won the second victory in it over the past three years.

In the first stint, Akkodis ASP’s No. 88 Mercedes took the lead, but in one of the rounds of pit stops, Iron Lynx’s No. 71 Ferrari left Davide Rigon for the second consecutive shift, and this allowed him to lead the race. The No. 88 Mercedes was later fined twice for pit stop violations, and Ferrari’s other rival, the No. 32 Audi crew, which won the season opener, ran into trouble after colliding with a lap car.

As a result, Iron Lynx took two first places: Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco in Ferrari No. 71 celebrated the victory, and Niklas Nielsen, James Calado and Miguel Molina in Ferrari No. 51 became the second. Akkodis ASP’s Mercedes No. 88 crew of Raffaele Marchiello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon finished third, ahead of Rowe Racing’s BMW and the crew of the famous ex-motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, whose Audi No. 46 finished fifth.

Al-Faisal Al-Zubair, Axil Jeffreys and Fabian Schiller, pilots of the Al Manar Racing by HRT team, won the Silver Cup standings, while the Akkodis ASP crew, which included Konstantin Tereshchenko in Imola, became the second – this time instead of a Russian, the Frenchman Thomas Drouet was driving.

Among the Gold Cup crews, there was no equal trio of Inception Racing consisting of Oliver Millroy, Brendan Iribe and Frederik Shandorff. In this class, seventh place was won by Russian Alex Malykhin and his crew partners James Dorlin and Ben Barker in Allied Racing’s Porsche No.

“1000 km Paul Ricard” (top 10):

1. D. Serra, D. Rigon, A. Fuoko (Iron Lynx / Ferrari 488 GT3 No. 71) – 176 laps

2. N. Nielsen, D. Calado, M. Molina (Iron Lynx / Ferrari 488 GT3 #51) +7.829 sec

3. R. Marciello, D. Juncadella, J. Gounon (Akkodis ASP / Mercedes-AMG GT3 #88) +8.668

4. D. Harper, N. Verhagen, M. Hesse (Rowe Racing / BMW M4 GT3 #50) +22,100

5. F. Vervis, N. Müller, V. Rossi (Team WRT / Audi R8 LMS #46) +23.439

6. M. Bortolotti, D. Aitken, A. Costa (Emil Frey Racing / Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #63) +44,847

7. A. F. Al-Zubair, A. Jeffreys, F. Schiller (Al Manar Racing by HRT / Mercedes-AMG GT3 #777) +54.066

8. K. Stevenson, T. Drouet, T. Mosca (Akkodis ASP / Mercedes-AMG GT3 No. 87) +1 lap

9. O. Millroy, B. Iribe, F. Shandorff (Inception Racing / McLaren 720S GT3 No. 7) +1 lap

10. J. Puhakka, M. Winkelhock, D. Marshall (Attempto Racing / Audi R8 LMS No. 66) +1 lap.

The next stage of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, the 24-hour Spa 24-hour marathon, will take place on July 30-31 in Belgium.