GRT Lamborghini become the seventh winner in seven races in GTWC Sprint Cup with win in race 1 at Magny-Cours

Written by Aaron Carroll

Credit: SRO/JEP

The No.63 Lamborghini of Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper have become the seventh winner in seven races at the GTWC EU Sprint Cup, in the first of two races at Magny-Cours.

The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup round got underway at 20:45 local time at Magny-Cours. Before that however, the No.74 Bronze Cup Ferrari of Dennis Marschall set the quickest time in qualfying, to go what was then pole. A few hours later though, Marschall was deemed to have exceeded track limits, and lost pole.

That meant the No.63 Lamborghini of Luca Engstler led the field away at the green flag, as the track descended into darkness for this evening into night race. The polesitter got away well, as the cars headed down to turn one for the first time.

Everyone got through the first complex of corners relatively unscathed, but the action kicked off at the next hairpin. The No.51 Ferrari was spun around by Jim Pla in the fourth placed No.111 McLaren, Alessio Rovera falling all the way down the order. The McLaren later got a drive through penalty for the incident.

Chris Lulham in the gold pole sitting No.69 Ferrari was forced to stop on circuit to avoid hitting the stricken No.51. He also dropped all the way down the order, losing 23 places.

At the same corner just one lap later, Andriolo Romain in the No.64 Ford Mustang got his braking point wrong, hitting the back of the No.99 Audi, who in turn picked up the No.78 Lamborghini. The former two cars were forced to retire, but the latter was able to limp back to the pits.

Credit: SRO/JEP

The two cars needed to be recovered from the gravel trap, so the safety car was deployed. When everything was cleared up, the race director brought the safety car back in and the cars roared away again.

Engstler once again perfected the getaway, with the rest top 6 all following in single file. Heading down to turn five, Charles Weerts in the No.32 championship leading car went for a move on the No.48 Mercedes. The two championship rivals battled there for a couple of laps, but Lucas Auer in the yellow Mercedes held on to sixth.

There was more bad news for the No.51 Ferrari, as Rovera pulled the car into the pits to retire.

Just before the pit window opened, the No.50 and No.93 Ferraris went side by side in the middle sector. They slowed each other enough to allow the No.59 McLaren to make it three wide heading into a tight chicane. Three into one didn't go, and the McLaren ended up off track, with no position changes in the end.

The pit window opened for the Pro and Gold cars, with only five minutes allocated for the two classes to get into the pits. Most cars came in at the first time of asking. The No.63 had a slow stop, and dropped to second behind the No.96 Porsche.

Jordan Pepper now in the Lamborghini caught up to the Porsche quickly, and went for a move on Sven Müller, the net leaders going side by side for a good chunk of the lap. Pepper got a good run and almost had the move done, but Müller broke the latest and kept the lead.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Once all of the pit stops had sorted themselves out, those two led the No.32 BMW by seven and a half seconds. The championship leaders were ahead of their rivals in the No's 48 (fourth) and 59 (eighth), setting them up to extend their one point lead.

The No.19 GRT Lamborghini of Baptiste Moulin went for an ambitious move on Darren Leung in the No.991 BMW, hitting into the side of the Bronze car. Neither car seemed to have major damage from the clash, but the Lamborghini kept the position.

With 20 minutes to go, the broadcast cut to shots of the No.112 McLaren facing the wrong way on the side of the track. The stricken car brought out the full course yellow (FCY). The CSA McLaren was tagged by Leung in the No.991, and went into the barrier.

Müller was caught napping on the restart, with Pepper getting the run and completing the move for the lead as the pairing went three wide with a lapped Bronze Porsche.

From there Pepper extended the gap in the last 10 minutes, and eventually held on to win race 1 at Magny-Cours, and make it seven different overall winners in seven races for the GTWC EU Sprint Cup in 2025.

The No.96 Porsche was second, and the No.32 BMW third. The Porsche jumped up to second in the championship with their finish, still extremely close between them, the BMW, and the No.48 Mercedes that finished fourth.

The No.58 McLaren of Thomas Fleming and Louis Prette took a mostly dominant win in the Gold Cup, after the earlier troubles for the No.69 Ferrari. The Verstappen sponsored car did end up fifth in class however, a good recovery drive from Lulham and Theirry Vermuelen.

The No.21 Aston Martin won in Silver after leading the class for the majority of the race and the No.89 Porsche won in Bronze after holding off Leung in the No.991 BMW late in the race.

You can tune into race two at 15:15 local time tomorrow.