BMW WRT win race two at the GTWC in Zandvoort in dominant fashion
- Aaron Carroll
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
The No.32 WRT BMW has been driven to victory by Charles Weerts and Kelvin Van Der Linde in race two of the GTWC EU (GT World Challenge Europe) Sprint round at Zandvoort. The No.26 Audi won in Silver, while the No.69 Verstappen.com Ferrari won in Gold and the No.74 Ferrari won in Bronze.
Ben Green in the No.14 Emil Frey Ferrari led the field away from pole position for the second race at the GTWC EU Sprint Cup round at Zandvoort at 2:45pm local time. In qualifying earlier in the morning Chris Lulham in the No.69 Verstappen.com Gold Cup Ferrari grabbed second on the grid, ahead of Arthur Leclerc in the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari.
Green got the best start, leading the pack into turn one. However, Lulham in the No.69 came back at him through the high banking at turn three, but he couldn't make the move down the inside. Meanwhile the No.58 McLaren took a trip to the gravel, otherwise no major incidents to report.
Jordan Pepper in the No.63 Lamborghini got past Leclerc on the start, taking third. The two Ferraris and the Lamborghini began to build a small gap on the chasing pack behind. Lulham led the Gold class from second overall, with the No.26 Sainteloc Audi leading Silver from fifth. Dustin Blattner in the No.74 Ferrari led bronze.
The leading trio were nose to tail for much of the opening laps, Lulham looking for the lead and Pepper looking for second.
Just before the ten minute mark Arthur Leclerc in the No.50 went off the track with a problem at the penultimate corner, the Monégasque driver dropped down the order from fourth on the next lap after missing the pit lane entrance. When he did eventually pit, the AF Corse team dragged the car into the garage.
Soon after, Jordan Pepper went for a move on Lulham at turn one and got past the Briton. Lulham wasn't conceding the position so quickly though, getting back down the inside at turn three.
The two leading Ferraris would receive a setback, a 10-second time penalty for a jumped start for Green and the same penalty for Lulham, for being outside of his grid box.
The battle between Lulham and Pepper created a queue of cars all the way down to eighth place, with the No.32 BMW of Kelvin Van Der Linde getting by the No.96 Porsche of Sven Müller for sixth.
With the pit window being split - five minutes for the Silver and Bronze cars and five minutes for Pro and Gold cars - almost all of the Silver and Bronze cars came in at the first opportunity for a stop. Before the stops, the No.26 and No.74 led each class respectively, they also led afterwards.
The pit window then opened for the Pro and Gold cars. At the first opportunity for the Pro and Gold car pit stops, Lulham stayed out along with Müller in the No.96 Porsche. The No.14 served their penalty, and it was the No.32 BMW that emerged from the pits in the lead.
The WRT team performed a speedy pit stop, overtaking multiple cars in the pits. Second on the road was the No.26 Silver leading Audi, with the No.63 Lamborghini now driven by Luca Engstler.
They were followed by the No.59 McLaren and the No.48 Mercedes who got a peanlty for speeding in the pit lane. Then came the No.96 Porsche, No.992 BMW (Silver), No.99 Audi (Silver), No.21 Aston Martin (Silver) and the No.9 Mercedes rounded out the top 10 with 25 minutes to go.
Charles Weerts in the No.32 began to build a gap out front, with the No.26 Audi acting as somewhat of a cork in the bottle, with many cars lined up behind ready to pounce for the position.
The No.99 Audi took second in class from the No.992 BMW with just over 20 minutes to go, the two Silver cars together on track with the No.21 Aston Martin.
The battles behind the second placed overall Audi began to heat up with 10 minutes to go, the No.63 trying to get by while defending from the No.59 McLaren. He in turn was defending from both the No.48 Mercedes and the No.96 Porsche who also had their own battle raging.
With just a minute remaining, the No.66 Audi went spinning into the gravel in the final sector as the leaders passed through on their final lap.
Nobody could catch Weerts in the No.32 BMW though, he crossed the line to take victory in race two at Zandvoort, with the No.26 Audi coming in behind to finish second overall and win in Silver after Ivan Klymenko defended hard from the Pro cars behind.
The No.63 Lamborghini was third overall and second in Pro, with the No.59 McLaren rounding out the Pro podium. The No.69 Verstappen.com Ferrari won in Gold despite the earlier penalty, with the No.74 Kessel Racing Ferrari taking the honours in Bronze.
The GTWC EU Sprint Cup returns on the 18th of July, for a pair of races at Misano.
