The current champions have taken advantage of the first serious puncture of the leaders to hit the table. With a performance of great authority, Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor have won the first round of the Sprint Cup in Zandvoortvictory that is worth double if you take into account that the #89 Mercedes has not managed to score points after starting in the middle of the peloton and having a puncture after a touch. The podium in the Netherlands was completed by the #88 Mercedes and #11 Audi drivers
Charles Weerts did not fail at the start and maintained first place with the #32 Audigreatly favored by the discreet start of a Simon Gachet who lost two places. Thus Ulysse de Pauw’s #53 Ferrari climbed to second place, while Jules Gounon managed to gain two positions against Luca Ghiotto’s poor start to move up to third. Behind, Timur Boguslavskiy could not gain positions with the #89 Mercedesamong other things because the output was much cleaner than might be expected in the first instance.
Aurélien Panis also accounted for Simon Gachet to climb to fourth position during the first third of the race. A maneuver that was almost the only overtaking once the first turns were overcome, since the positions tended to stabilize. In fact, only the spin of the #33 Audi after a touch of the #89 Mercedes by Timur Bogulavsky and a spin of Valentino Rossi with the Audi #46 they were the only highlights of the race before the pit stop window opened.
Jules Gounon took advantage of the moments before the pit stop to get behind the wheel of the #53 Ferrari by Ulysse de Pauw, achieving his goal of overtaking the AF Corse car in the maneuver through the pitlane. Thus, the #32 Audi remained, already in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, at the head of the race and ahead of Jim Pla’s #88 Mercedes. For its part, the Ferrari #53 returned to the track in third position. The distance between the leaders was great, but a period of ‘Full Course Yellow’, finished off with a Safety Car due to the problems of the McLaren #112They compacted the group.
The race restarted minutes later, but Dries Vanthoor had the knack for a hit-and-run in the #32 Audi. Tenth by tenth, the youngest of the Vanthoor was cementing an income that he would later manage in the last laps of the race. In fact, Dries Vanthoor took the victory after crossing the finish line with an advantage of 2.8 seconds over the #88 Mercedes by Jules Gounon and Jim Pla. For its part, Christopher Haase took the third final position behind the wheel of the #11 Audi after beating Ferrari #53, winner in any case of the Silver Cup.
Patric Niederhauser could not ultimately with the #53 Ferrari and he had to settle for fifth place at the controls of the Audi #25 of Saintéloc Racing. Not far from the French team’s GT3, Dennis Marschall finished with the #66 Audi in a group that was also joined by Nicolas Schöll and Thomas Drouet. Not far from them closed the ‘top 10’ Mattia Drudi and Christopher Miesalthough the Italian was involved in a touch with the #89 Mercedes of the leaders that left Raffaele Marciello with a puncture and no chance of coming back.
Results race I GTWC Europe 2022 in Zandvoort
Photos: GT World Challenge Europe