Aston Martin steal victory from Mercedes in opening round of GTWCE

Written by Marios Gantzoudis and Owen Bradley

Credit: SRO / JEP - SRO GT World Challenge

The No.007 Aston Martin crew stole victory from the No.48 Mercedes crew in the final 10 minutes of the race, after the Mercedes squad had dominated proceedings for almost the entire duration of the race.

The No.007 Comtoyou Aston Martin won after starting from third place on the grid, in a race that was marked by tyre consumption and power struggles from some of the major manufacturers. Aston Martin F1 driver - Lance Stroll - joined the event to make his debut in GT racing, with four-time champion Max Verstappen also in attendance trackside.

The start of the race proved tumultuous, as behind the leading pack a major incident occurred, involving at least four cars, with the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche hitting the wall on the left, near the end of the main straight, after contact occurred with another car.

Thankfully, Robin Knutsson was okay but out of the race, as were the No. 555 CSA McLaren of Moulin Baptiste, the No.89 Lionspeed GT Porsche of Bashar Mardini and the No.44 Greystone GT McLaren of Jayden Kelly.

Meanwhile, moments later, the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren of Dean McDonald was spun around by Marco Sorensen in the No.007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin at Turn 2, with the No.46 WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi nearly colliding with the stricken McLaren.

Up front, Maro Engel maintained the lead in the No.48 Mann-Filter Mercedes, even after the safety car restart, followed by Benjamin Goethe in the No.58 Garage 59 McLaren in the Gold class lead and Maxime Martin in the No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes, who had made a stunning start from sixth on the grid.

Another car facing problems early on was the No.4 Optimum Racing McLaren, with driver Freddie Tomlinson making an unscheduled stop due to feared front-right suspension damage, the Briton subsequently falling four laps behind the field.

Early on, a three-way battle for sixth place monopolized the attention, as the Gold class No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff was trying to hold the No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche of his compatriot Bastian Buus and the No.32 Team WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde.

Buus tried a move on the back straight a couple of times but failed as the Dane covered him every time, but finally the Pro class Porsche prevailed, getting by on Lap 18 with a bold move on Turn 1. The Ferrari subsequently lost its momentum, with Van der Linde also getting by on the same lap to claim seventh.

After the hour mark the class leaders were as follows: Overall/Pro class: Maro Engel - No.48 Mann-Filter, Mercedes

Gold class: Benjamin Goethe - No.58 Garage 59, McLaren Silver class: Finn Wiebelhaus - No.65 HRT Ford Racing, Ford

Bronze class: James Kellet - No.991 Paradine Competition, BMW

Shortly afterwards, the first scheduled pitstops started occuring, meanwhile the No.18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin received a stop&go penalty, due to Mari Boya causing a collision with the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari of Sean Gelael, whilst fighting for 16th.

Come the end of the pitstop cycle, Engel retained the lead, doing a double-stint with a comfortable gap from the now second-placed Martin, who was engulfed in a battle for the place with the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes of Jules Gounon and the No.80 Porsche of Thomas Preining.

The battle culminated in an impressive sequence of events down the back straight near the two hour mark, as Gounon momentarily went on two wheels while attempting a pass around traffic, while Preining got both of the Mercedes, snatching second, with Gounon now ahead of Martin but still third!

Meanwhile the Garage 59 McLaren was performing a stunning recovery, as despite finding themselves right down the order after the opening lap, firstly McDonald and the Joseph Loake performed incredibly well, with the No.59 car in 14th place before making its second pitstop.

After two hours had passed, the leading cars remained the same, apart from the Bronze class lead, as the No.42 BMW from Oman Racing by Century Motorsport was now in first, with Ahmad Al-Harthy behind the wheel.

Elsewhere, The No.18 Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, had dropped well out of contention, after receiving multiple penalties for contact and track limits violations. The Canadian was unfortunately not able to have the debut in GT racing that he would have wanted, as the team ended up finishing in last place on track.

Additionally, another notable name, MotoGP legend - Valentino Rossi, struggled with tyre wear in his No.46 BMW. The Italian dropped outside of the Top 10, and despite Max Hesse and Dan Harper's best efforts, the team were ultimately unable to change their fate, ending up finishing in 12th position.

Credit: SRO / JEP - SRO GT World Challenge

Other BMW's also struggled for pace around Paul Ricard, with the No.32 BMW ending up in fourth, benefiting largely from a late Safety Car, and the No.98 Rowe Racing BMW ending up in sixth place.

Lucas Auer in the No.48 Mercedes looked set to cross the line comfortably during the final hour of the race, the Mercedes squad dominated the race from the very start. However, a safety car would be deployed in the final half hour, which bunched the field together.

Once the Safety Car peeled into the pit lane, Nicki Thiim set the pace in the No.007 Aston Martin, closing massively on Auer in the No.48 Mercedes, who may have been struggling for tyre grip.

Credit: SRO / JEP - SRO GT World Challenge Europe

During the final 10 minutes of the race, Thiim was able to get past the Mercedes, which ran out of grip, and ran wide at Turn 8, after the long back straight. Auer attempted to defend the inside line from Thiim, but found himself on the wrong side of the circuit going into Turn 8, losing grip under braking, and running off-track, ceasing the lead to Thiim in the Aston Martin.

After the thrilling conclusion to the six-hour race, it was the No.007 Comtoyou Aston Martin squad that claimed the overall victory of the race, with the No.58 United Autosports McLaren team taking victory in the Gold Cup, No.97 Porsche squad winning the Bronze Cup and the No.9 Porsche squad winning the silver class.

The second round of the GTWC Europe season will take place at Brands Hatch, the first sprint round of the 2026 season.