The GT World Challenge Europe (GTWCE) series visited the Magny-Cours circuit in France for a pair of Sprint Cup races this past weekend. The race saw mixed results for Team WRT as the team strengthened its championship lead in one class but lost it in another.
The WRT pairing of Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont has been contenders in the Silver Cup class all year in their #30 M4 GT3 EVO (shown in top photo), and they solidified their championship standing at Magny Cours. For race one, the duo qualified 10th overall and went on to win their class, and they put the icing on the cake by winning the class again in race two and finishing second overall. “This is simply amazing – having a race weekend like this in my first year racing a GT3 car,” said Montenegro. “Matisse and I felt very comfortable at Magny-Cours, both in qualifying and in the races. On top of that, Team WRT executed a superb strategy and a perfect pit stop. The results are incredible.”
Matisse Lismont (right) and Ignacio Montenegro won the Silver Cup class in both races.
A BMW also won race two in the Bronze Cup class, with Augusto Farfus and Darren Leung taking the class victory in the #991 Paradine Competition M4 GT3 EVO after finishing fifth in class in race one. “The class win is great. We knew we had good pace in the car,” said Farfus. “The team did a phenomenal job. On Sunday we found the perfect balance, which allowed us to fight our way to first place. That’s fantastic!”
The Paradine Competition BMW on it’s way to a Bronze Cup class win.
Team WRT had a lot of momentum in the Pro Cup class coming into Magny-Cours, after Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde won both races two weeks before at Misano in Italy. That momentum came to a screeching halt at Magny Cours. The duo only qualified 17th for race one, though they were able to move up 10 places to finish seventh. In race two, van der Linde initially put the #32 on the pole but the car was disqualified for exceeding the maximum turbo boost pressure by 10mbar. Things went even worse in the race, as van der Linde made contact with another car while working his way through the field and broke the suspension, leading to a DNF.
Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi had a best finish of sixth in race one.
The #46 WRT entry of Valentino Rossi and Max Hesse fared a bit better, finishing sixth in the Pro Cup class in race one after qualifying third and finishing seventh in class in race two after starting 22nd. “Sunday’s qualifying was extremely difficult with 22nd on the grid,” said Hesse. “We managed to make up some positions in the race but starting that far back meant the fight for the top positions was no longer realistic.” The #31 Pro Cup entry of Jordan Pepper and Amaury Cordeel finished in 20th overall in race one and 11th overall in race two.
While Montenegro and Lismont were able to extend their lead in the Silver Cup class points, Weerts and van der Linde dropped from first to third in points after the Magny-Cours races. WRT is second in overall team points behind the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG team. The next GTWCE race is an Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring on August 28th-30th. The next pair of Sprint Cup races will be at Zandvoort on September 18th-20th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]
