The penultimate race weekend for the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup took place at the Magny-Cours circuit in France on the weekend of August 2-3, 2025, and BMW teams came away with a few podium finishes while keeping the fight for the championship alive.
In race one, the #32 Team WRT M4 GT3 EVO of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde (shown in top photo) finished on the podium in third in the Pro Cup class, behind the winning #63 Lamborghini that started from the pole, and the #96 Porsche. As has happened in other races this year, the WRT team made up time during the pit stop, undercutting the others to make up four positions.
Jens Klingmann and Al Faisal Al Zubair are second in Gold Cup points going into the final races.
The #777 AlManar Racing by WRT M4 GT3 EVO of Jens Klingmann and Al Faisal Al Zubair also made it on the podium in the Gold Cup class, finishing second behind the winning #58 McLaren. In the Silver Cup class, the #992 Paradine Competition BMW of Maxime Oosten and Mex Jansen finished fourth, followed in fifth by the Team WRT #30 BMW of Gustav Bergström and Giles Stadsbader. In Bronze Cup, Paradine Competition drivers Darren Leung and Jake Dennis initially finished second but were demoted to sixth after a post-race time penalty.
Maxime Oosten and Mex Jansen finished fourth in both races in Silver Cup.
In race two, the Weerts and van der Linde duo repeated the same performance they had in race one, finishing in third once again behind the winning #59 McLaren and the #63 Lamborghini. The pair of third place finishes allowed Weerts and van der Linde to keep the points lead by a slim margin going into the final two races at Valencia. “A solid weekend in terms of points, but we’re still lacking pace compared to our main contenders,” said van der Linde. “We need to analyse the data carefully to find where we can gain performance. While our race execution was strong, we’ll need a bit more speed at Valencia if we want to win this championship – and that’s definitely our goal.”
Giles Stadsbader and Gustav Bergstrom finished fifth in race one.
The Klingmann and Al Zubair duo finished fourth in the Gold Cup class in race two, putting them into second place in the driver points going into the final two races. Oosten and Jansen also finished fourth in the Silver Cup class, after initially finishing second before a post-race time penalty was added. Jansen is leading the driver points in the Silver Cup class, but just barely. Berström and Stadsbader finished seventh in Silver Cup, while Leung and Dennis finished last and a lap down from the winners in the Bronze Cup class.
Jake Dennis makes use of the curb in the Paradine Competition M4 GT3 EVO.
The final two races of the GT World Challenge Sprint Cup championship take place at Valencia in Spain on September 19-21, 2025. There are two races left in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup championships – at the Nurburgring on August 29th-31st and the finale in Barcelona on October 10th-12th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
