Gold No.58 Garage 59 McLaren entry wins outright in exciting GTWC EU Zandvoort Race One
The Gold class No.58 Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Fleming and Louis Prette beat the pole-sitting No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche to bring home a well-deserved overall win, in a action-packed GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Race One at Zandvoort.
As it happened It was a rather untidy start for many on the field, with poleman Morris Schuring in his No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche leading for just a couple of corners before Tom Fleming got past in his No.58 Garage 59 McLaren.
Dean McDonald in the sister No.59 McLaren was amongst the biggest losers, with himself being tapped from behind on the run to Tarzan, being forced to go up the escape road and falling a total of 31 places, his chances at a great result evaporating.
Misfortune befell upon Dennis Marschall in the No.74 Kessel Ferrari, with a puncture suffered courtesy of a contact, forcing him to pit and come back at the back of the field. Contrasting were the fortunes for the two Lamborghini cars, with Loris Spinelli in the No.163 VSR entry up 10 places on lap one to find himself on 15th, with Luca Engstler in the No.96 Rutronik one, getting himself up to 19th, gaining seven places.
The action though lasted only a few minutes before the first safety car intervention, as the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari of Carl Bennett crashed into Amaury Cordeel's No.31 Team WRT BMW, trying to rejoin after a spin on the banked Hugenholtzbocht corner, with the latter left stranded on track, facing oncoming traffic and both out of the race.
After a couple of laps behind it, the safety car went its way, leaving the track in order for racing to resume. Fleming made the most of that restart, gradually opening a gap of nearly two seconds to Schuring, who himself was steadily a second ahead of Tommaso Mosca's No.51 Ferrari in third.
The battle between Augusto Farfus in the No.991 Paradine BMW and Eddie Cheever in the No.93 Ziggo Tempesta Porsche for fourth place and the Bronze lead was amongst the most interesting battles ongoing, with other ones down the field also occuring, although for lesser places.
With 35 minutes to go the pit lane opened -as is always the case- for the only mandatory pit stop and driver swap that all have to do. This phase of the race re-ignited the battle for the lead, as the No.2 Porsche now of Dorian Boccolacci nearly got past the No.58 McLaren of Louis Prette, as the latter had a slower getaway from its pit box due to oncoming pit lane traffic.
Meanwhile Bastian Buus in the No.80 Lionspeed Porsche got past Thomas Neubauer's No.50 Ferrari before the pair made their pit stop, with Bronze and Silver entries going into the pit lane as late as possible, with Farfus spending some laps in the overall lead.
After the pit lane cycle was completed, Prette once again assumed the overall lead, with Boccolacci close behind in second, with all of us focusing on the frenetic three-way battle for third, between the No.914 Razoon Porsche of Simon Birch, the No.80 Porsche of Ricardo Feller and the No.69 Emil Frey Ferrari of Ben Green, which was sadly put on hold, due to a full-course yellow.
It was caused by the championship leading No.32 Team WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde's retirement, with the team's already tough weekend, going worse. Once racing resumed with 20 minutes to go, the battle for third resumed its course, with Feller getting a great launch, but failing once more to go around the outside of Birch at Tarzan.
Further behind Darren Leung, having taken over the No.991 BMW from Farfus, was being pressured heavily by Maro Engel's No.48 Winward Mercedes for 16th, with a queue of cars forming up behind the Bronze driver, all of them eager to pounce by.
Leung eventually lost three places and the Bronze lead, with Peter Dempsey in the No.93 Porsche not missing a beat in capitalizing his chance, after Engel and Konsta Lappalainen in the No.14 Emil Frey Ferrari went by in short succession.
At the front, Prette was still holding on as Boccolacci remained within a second of the McLaren, with attention bouncing between the exciting four-way battle for the last podium place and Leung's struggles in 19th.
Birch's developing tyre struggles eventually meant he missed out on third, with Ben Green cheekily forcing his way past both him and Feller at Tarzan, with a small ''touch'' to the No.914 Porsche enough for the Ferrari to grab third, as five cars in total were now involved in spectacular racing.
Feller still could not get past Birch though and that meant Green quickly opened up the gap to escape from both Porsches, as well as Arthur Leclerc's No.50 Ferrari in sixth and the Chris Lulham-driven No.3 Verstappen Mercedes, which rather impressively found itself up in seventh after the pit stops, despite Dani Juncadella struggling in the race's early moments.
Despite the Lionspeed GP driver going all out in the final lap of the race, Birch held firm for fourth place at the end, with Feller fifth and Lulham in sixth, who managed to get past Leclerc in the race's final moments.
This followed up on Louis Prette doing a fantastic job, holding on to the lead despite the constant sighting of Boccolacci's Porsche in his mirrors, to achieve his first overall win in GTWC EU, with Ben Green crossing the line ten seconds later in third.
Matias Zagazeta in the No.51 Gold AF Corse Ferrari was in eighth, with Ignacio Montenegro finishing in ninth, but getting the Silver class win in the No.30 Team WRT BMW, the only silver lining for the team, as Kobe Pauwels completed the top 10 in the No.7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin.
A bit further behind, in 18th was the Bronze class winning car, that of Peter Dempsey, the No.93 Ziggo Tempesta Porsche, comfortably ahead of the next Bronze rival, Darren Leung.
Results of GTWC EU Zandvoort Race One - Top 10 overall
1st No.58 Garage 59 McLaren - Gold (Fleming, Prette)
2nd No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche (Schuring, Boccolacci)
3rd No.69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari (Vermuelen, Green)
4th No.914 Razoon Porsche (Bachler, Birch)
5th No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche (Buus, Feller)
6th No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes (Juncadella, Lulham)
7th No.50 AF Corse Ferrari (Neubauer, Leclerc)
8th No.51 AF Corse Ferrari (Zagazeta, Mosca) - Gold
9th No.30 Team WRT BMW (Montenegro, Lismont) - Silver Winners
10th No.7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin (Thiim, Pauwels)
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