No.69 Emil Frey Ferrari wins convincingly in GTWC EU Zandoort Race two as Silver champions are crowned
Thierry Vermeulen became the first Dutch driver to win on home soil in GT World Challenge Europe's (GTWC EU) Zandvoort Race two, with the 24-year-old also achieving his maiden overall win, in the No.69 Emil Frey Ferrari, the team's first win in two years.
As it happened Konsta Lappalainen, starting from pole in the No.14 Emil Frey Ferrari easily retained the lead at the start, with Emil Frey's sister No.69 car driven by Ben Green getting through to second, completing a dream first corner for the Swiss team.
But the start wasn't without any trouble, as Christopher Haase in the No.84 Eastalent Audi was squeezed out of the road in the run to Hugenholtzbocht, spinning and crashing into the No.7 Comtoyou Aston Martin of Kobe Pauwels, with both out of the race and a brief safety car coming out.
At the restart, the two Ferraris remained in control, with focus on the titanic scrap for 5th between Max Hesse's No.46 Team WRT BMW, Ricardo Feller's No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, Patric Niederhauser's No.96 Rutronik Lamborghini and Jordan Pepper's No.31 Team WRT BMW.
Feller managed to get his way past Hesse, with the latter under pressure from the Lamborghini and the sister BMW car, with action only stopping a couple of laps later, courtesy of a Full Course Yellow, due to a collision between Nicolas Baert's No.89 Lionspeed GP Porsche and Jop Rappange's No.77 KPX BMW, which resulted in the former being left stranded on the gravel trap at Gerlachbocht.
After that FCY ended, the restart proved disastrous for leader Lappalainen, with Green going straight past him to take the lead, although happily for Emil Frey, both had a decent gap to third placed Louis Prette's No.58 Garage 59 McLaren, who was under pressure by that point by both Matias Zagazeta's No.51 AF Corse Ferrari and Feller's Porsche.
Just as lap 12 started, Feller managed to grab fourth from Zagazeta, setting his sights on Prette, one second ahead. Meanwhile Ben Green's lead had risen to two seconds, with Lappalainen clearly struggling after losing the lead in the restart.
Further down the field, there was Leclerc trying to hold onto ninth, being pressured by Maro Engel's No.48 Winward Mercedes, with a three-car battle right behind them, as Chris Lulham in the No.3 Verstappen Mercedes tried to keep the No.10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Gilles Magnus and the No.99 Tresor Attempto Audi of Alex Aka behind.
With the mandatory pit stop and driver swap window opening with 35 minutes to go, all Bronze and Silver cars made their way in first as is custom, with Mikey Porter's No.5 Optimum McLaren leading the Silver class in 17th and Peter Dempsey in the No.93 Ziggo Tempesta Porsche comfortably leading the Bronze class in 22nd.
At around the same moment, both Magnus and Aka got their way in the battle with Lulham, the Verstappen Racing driver struggling for pace, whilst things at the front stayed the same, albeit with Green's gap to Lappalainen now at four seconds.
At the end of what was lap 18, the leader and most of the remaining Gold and Pro cars entered the pits, with Lappalainen, Zagazeta and Engel the only drivers from the top 10 not to do so, instead pitting a lap later.
Precisely moments before that however, there was an incident between Tom Fleming, who took over the No.58 McLaren and Amaury Cordeel's No.31 BMW, that ended in the latter being spun round and into the barriers at Hugenholtzbocht, marking the end of a terrible weekend for the young Belgian driver, who however managed to get back to the pits, avoiding another race interruption.
After the pitstop cycle, it became evident that pitting earlier payed off, with Bastian Buus finding himself up at second in the No.80 Porsche, behind the leading No.69 Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen and ahead of Matteo Cairoli who now drove the No.14 Ferrari.
Valentino Rossi was now in fourth, the No.46 BMW's original starting position, as Fleming rounded out the top five, while simultaneously grabbing the Gold class lead off the No.51 Ferrari of -now- Tommaso Mosca.
However it was not meant to be for Fleming, as he subsequently received a 10 second stop & go penalty for the prior incident with Cordeel.
With less than 20 minutes to go, Cairoli was in rapid pace, hunting down Buus' Porsche and putting serious pressure, wanting to get his team a rare 1-2 win. However the Italian seems tried too hard, using up too much tyre-life, his pursuit halting less than ten minutes later.
The race somewhat settled down into order for the last few laps, as Vermeulen comfortably achieved Emil Frey Racing's first overall win since 2024's Hockenheim race two, with Buus second in the No.80 Porsche and Cairoli in third, completing a 1-3 for the team.
Rossi crossed the line in fourth, ahead of Thomas Neubauer's No.50 AF Corse Ferrari and Mosca's Gold winning No.51 Ferrari, as Luca Engstler's No.96 Lamborghini, Lucas Auer's No.48 Mercedes, Dani Juncadella's No.3 Mercedes and Robin Knutsson's No.10 Porsche completed the top 10.
This result of course has major implications for the overall Sprint championship hunt, as now Lionspeed GP's No.80 pair leads the overall standings, with 59 points, compared to the 53 that Dani Juncadella now has, after finishing 9th.
Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont completed their full-sweep of the Silver class, as despite the No.21 Comtoyou Aston Martin winning in class today, results meant they are also crowned Sprint Cup Silver champions and Overall Silver champions, in addition to the Endurance crown which they got at the Nurburgring.
Finally the No.93 Ziggo Tempesta Porsche completed the double with another class win at Zandvoort, also taking the Bronze championship lead off the No.87 Winward Mercedes.
Results of GTWC EU Zandvoort Race Two - Top 10 overall
1st No.69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari (Vermuelen, Green)
2nd No.80 Lionspeed GP Porsche (Buus, Feller)
3rd No.14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari (Lappalainen, Cairoli)
4th No.46 Team WRT BMW (Rossi, Hesse)
5th No.50 AF Corse Ferrari (Neubauer, Leclerc)
6th No.51 AF Corse Ferrari (Zagazeta, Mosca) - Gold Winners
7th No.96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini (Engstler, Niederhauser)
8th No.48 Winward Racing Mercedes (Auer, Engel)
9th No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes (Juncadella, Lulham)
10th No.2 Boutsen VDS Porsche (Knutsson, Magnus)
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