Winward Mercedes win hectic, FCY filled GTWC EU Endurance race at Monza
- Aaron Carroll
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
The No.48 Mercedes driven by Luacs Auer, Matteo Cairoli and Maro Engel have won the three hour GTWC EU Endurance event at Monza, after eight Full-Course Yellows. The No.777 BMW won in Gold, the No.42 in Silver and the No.97 in Bronze.
The second round of the GTWC EU (GT World Challenge Europe) Endurance Cup got underway at 3pm local time today, as the No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes driven by Joules Gounon led the 58 car grid down to turn one.
Before the field roared down to the first chicane, the No.66 Bronze Audi went under some heavy repairs, the engine completely taken apart. Due to this they started the race from the pit lane.
The No.15 Bronze BMW had an issue on the grid just before the formation lap. A mechanic was on the grid with the car after the grid had been cleared, frantically trying to rectify the issue. The Italia Ceccato BMW was pushed into the pits, the second car with a pit lane start.
At the start of the race there were cars everywhere at turn one, going three and four wide in some places with plenty of cars going off the track and down the runoff.
Just before turn three - Curva Grande - the No.9 Mercedes and the No.21 Aston Martin collided, with both cars going into the wall. This brought out the first safety car of the race.
Through the choas, the No.17 of Gounon still led, ahead of the No.63 Lamborghini and the No.48 Mercedes. The No.58 McLaren led Gold Cup from fourth overall, the No.99 Audi led Silver from 12th and the No.25 Audi led Bronze.
Gounon got away very well on the restart, with the leading group all holding positions. The No.007 Aston Martin went for a move on the No.163 Lamborghini, but nothing for it. Nicki Thiim in that car then had to defend from Alessio Rovera in the No.51 Ferrari.
A few laps after the original safety car, the No.611 Mercedes was spun around and into the gravel by the No.96 Rutronik Porsche. The FCY (Full-Course Yellow) was brought out so the car could be removed from the gravel. The No.96 would later receive a drive-through penalty for the incident.
The three hour race, which could normally be done on only two pit stops, had three mandatory pit stops for each car. This meant that there were multiple strategies to be played out across the field.
Many cars pit for their first mandatory stop under the FCY, including the No.63 Lamborghini among other leading cars. A lap later, everyone else came into the pits. The safety car was then brought out again after they came back out.
The No.48 Mercedes jumped the No.63 Lamborghini but that was the only major change up front as we went back to green flag racing. At turn one the No.58 McLaren went around the outside of the Lamborghini, getting into third place overall.
Battles continued to rage up and down the massive field of cars. The No.92 Porsche was involved in a moment, where it was hit into the wall in the braking zone of turn one. The Gold car hit the wall side on, destroying the left hand side suspension and ending their race.
This incident brought another FCY out, but it was just a short caution with no need for a safety car as the Porsche was recovered.
As the gaps at the front began to grow slightly, the No.58 McLaren of Dean Macdonald was all over the back of Maro Engel in the No.48 Mercedes for second overall. Behind the No.992 BMW went around the outside of the No.98 BMW, up to 14th overall after starting from towards the back.
That BMW battle turned into a five car battle along with the No.99 Audi, No.69 Aston Martin and the No.111 McLaren. As the five battled the No.50 Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc caught the train too. Initially it was the No.66 that came out on top, ahead of the No.992 in the battle for 11th.
The No.66 and No.992 were also battling for the lead in the Silver Cup, but the fiery battle was dampened when the BMW got a penalty for a pit stop infringement. The duo caught the No.22 Porsche ahead, with Alex Aka in the No.66 making quick work of Morris Schuring, as does James Kellet in the No.992.
Just past the one hour mark, the No.24 Corvette went very wide on the exit of the Lesmos and kicked up a lot of gravel. This put Lorcan Hanafin on the back foot, losing position to the No.81 Mercedes for 29th overall.
Thierry Vermuelen in the No.69 Aston Martin and Augusto Farfus in the No.98 BMW began to battle for 12th postition. Farfus made the move stick out of turn one, getting better traction than the Verstappen.com car.
Back out at the front of the field, the No.17 Mercedes had a three second lead from the sister No.48. The top seven had seen no changes in order since the last safety car restart.
The No.80 Porsche was spun around at turn one by the No.8 Ferrari. The rear tyres of the Lionspeed GP car were stuck in the small strip of gravel in the runoff on the inside of turn two, enough to beach the car. This caused yet another stoppage, in the form of a FCY.
Crucially for the leaders who were nearing time for a pit stop, the pit lane was closed as race control believed it would be a short caution. The Porsche was removed from the gravel and continued on in the race.
Soon after the green flags waved again, the No.25 Audi was going slowly. The Bronze car seemingly limping back to the pits with a mechanical issue.
The No.65 Ford Mustang pulled to a stop at the side of the track with a puncture as some of the cars pitted. The No.111 McLaren was also spun around by the No.69 at turn two, coming away with broken suspension. The two simultaneous incidents brought out the FCY.
The lead No.17 car was in the pits as the yellow came out, half of the pit stop occurring under caution. The cars behind that stayed out - the No.48 and No.7 - gained a massive advantage, serving their entire stops under the FCY.
As the safety car came out, the No.48 led from the No.7 and the No.60 Silver Cup Lamborghini. The No.17 was down in fourth on the restart, the FCY really hurting their race. To add to their pain, there was a massive train of lapped cars between them and the leaders.
Matteo Cairoli got away well at the green flag, opening up a large gap to second place, with multiple lapped cars in between. Fabian Schiller, now in the No.17, made quick work of the No.60 of Alessio Deledda for third overall. Schiller then went on to try to clear the lapped traffic between him and the No.7 Aston Martin.
As the Mercedes sifted its way through the traffic, and passing the No.007 Aston Martin, he was 12 seconds behind the leading No.48 already.
With just over an hour remaining, the No.112 McLaren ended up on the grass, but re-joined the track further down the train. Outside of the top three cars - No.48, No.17 and No.59 - there was a massive train containing most of the field. Some of the battles were for position, with others just trying to clear lapped traffic.
The No.98 ROWE Racing BMW was a victim of this train, almost being spun around at the first chicane in a six car fight. The front left corner of the car was hanging off, and a missing rear right corner. Jesse Krohn brought the car into the pits for repairs.
Due to this incident, there was bits of bodywork lying on the track at turn three. The high speed nature on that part of the track brough out the sixth caution period of the race, just before the final pit stops were due.
The leaders came into pit just after 50 minutes to go on the clock, and they came out onto the track in the same order. There would be drama for the No.17 though, Luca Stolz finding that his front right tyre had not been tightened enough. The GetSpeed car limped slowly to the run off, parking up behind the barrier.
The No.23 McLaren slowed with a puncture too, as did the No.6 Silver GetSpeed Mercedes, going slowly around the track. The Mercedes has a close moment with the No.911 Porsche. The Porsche didn't see the slow car and almost collided with him at high speed.
The No.19 Lamborghini had a dramatic tyre blowout on the main straight, just about managing to keep the car in a straight line and narrowly avoiding the No.42 BMW. The car pulled up in the run off at turn one and caused the seventh FCY of the race.
After all of the punctures, Lucas Auer led in the No.48, from the No.59 McLaren and the No.007 Aston Martin. The Aston was fighting with the Gold Cup leading No.777 who was in fourth. The No.42 BMW was battling the No.30 BMW for the lead in Silver and seventh overall. Finally in Bronze the No.97 Porsche led in Bronze with 30 minutes to go.
On the restart, the Silver leaders went side-by-side, with the No.42 going off the track and keeping the position over the No.30. The two continued to battle as they passed the No.97 Porsche for overall position. The No.30 eventually got the place back however.
About 15 minutes later the Silver lead changed again, and the No.42 began to build a small gap to the car behind.
There was also a battle for sixth overall between the No.34 Aston Martin, No.22 Porsche and the No.911 Porsche. The No.911 of Thomas Preining was forced off the road and took a short trip to the gravel, before coming back on again.
The battled continued onto the next lap, the No.22 going for a move on the Aston but getting compromised and allowing Preining back through. The No.911 then went side-by-side with Henrique Chaves in the No.34, with the Aston Martin holding the position.
Preining was compromised again as he was squeezed out for another short trip onto the gravel, allowing the No.22 back through. All of this battling allowed the Silver lead battle to catch up, putting the No.911 behind the No.42 as well.
Chaves in the No.34 complained of a lack of power on the straights, but still managed to defend from the pair of Porsches behind.
With four minutes left on the clock, the No.60 Lamborghini spun around and beached himself in the gravel, bringing out another FCY.
We went back to green flag conditions with a minute and a half remaining. So Lucas Auer didn't have to go for very long to bring the car across the line to win the race. The No.59 McLaren finished second, from the No.7 Aston Martin.
The No.777 BMW came home in fourth overall to win in Gold, with the No.42 BMW holding onto the win in Silver. The No.97 Porsche took the victory in Bronze.
The GTWC EU returns on the 28th of June for the 24 Hours of Spa.
