Bienvenue à tous dans le sud de la France et sur le circuit Paul Ricard sur la Côte d'Azur pour la troisième manche du championnat SRO GT World Challenge Europe 2023, soit les 1 000 kilomètres Paul Ricard. Sorry I am a little late. Working through this race, after the legendary 24 Hours of Spa has happened. It is just the nature of how packed the general calendar is for the sports car racing season with all the other races that have also been taking place over the last, oh, 6-8 weeks or so.
We have 1,000 kilometers (6 hours) of racing coming your way right now with another fabulous field of GT3 cars set to do battle. It is a beautiful, warm, sunny evening for this race with 57 GT3 cars coming out to play. The grid is set after a fast and furious qualifying session. We have Jake Sanson, Bruce Jones, and Joe Osborne in the commentary box set to call the action.
The Paul Ricard circuit has the long backstretch, the Mistral, up into Signe. 5.79 kilometers, 3.62 miles around. The circuit has 15 corners, high curbs, and camber changes. Andorran domiciled Frenchman Jules Gounon on the pole for Akkodis ASP in the #88 Mercedes AMG GT3. We could see rain, possibly. Don’t guess the weather. Adapt to it. Jules Gounon has the right attitude and he will share the pole position Mercedes with Swiss domiciled Italian Raffaele Marciello and Timur Bougslavskiy from Russia for the race today, the usual trio for this team for GT World Challenge Europe who also happen to be defending winners of the next race on the calendar, the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, the big one that everyone wants to win.
You will hear more about that race when we finish the 1,000 kilometers here tonight. We have a big grid of cars for this one and are getting ready to turn them loose. We have tons of great drivers, teams, and cars assembled for the 1,000 Kilometers and we will highlight as many of them as we can for you throughout this race which, of course, was originally six hours long. But today, we are bringing you highlighted coverage and you get the full experience of the 6-hour race in oh, about 45 minutes or so. It is a Mercedes-AMG front row lockout with Ferrari and Audi on row two.
The lights on the starting gantry are red now and will flash to green in mere seconds. They come around the last turn at Virage du Pont, point corner. The lights flash green! Let’s go! Jules Gounon gets the jump on everyone else. What a fabulous start for the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes driver! Good battle too for third. That is the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Robert Shwartzmann from Israel being challenged by the Audi R8 in the hands of Dennis Marschall. Marschall, the German driver in the #40 Tresor Orange1 Audi. Shwartzmann sharing his Ferrari with Nicklas Nielsen of Denmark and Italian Alessio Rovera.
Marschall starts this race for Tresor Orange1, and his co-drivers will be Mattia Drudi of San Marino and Swiss driver Ricardo “Ricky” Feller. Shwartzman is being monstered by a pack of Audi’s currently and his teammate in the other AF Corse Ferrari is also in that lot someplace. A sensational start indeed but these boys and girls are still sorting themselves out by the look of it. On team orders at Mercedes Benz, it sounds like Gounon opened a gap that allowed Maro Engel to slot into second place and poor old Robert Shwartzmann just got wrongfooted and he was sent down a few places.
Engel, the German, is sharing the #777 Mercedes-AMG Team Al Manar Mercedes AMG GT3 with countrymen Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller. They have been teamed up together for a long time have the three excellent German Mercedes factory drivers. Dennis Marschall read the situation well as they go three wide into turn six and onto the backstretch. This is onto the Mistral Straight for the first time through Sainte Baume turn. Someone has gone off the road at Sainte Baume! Deary me! What is going on there. Someone has spun into the wall. Oh shoot. That’s the Pro-Am class leading #78 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
That car being shared by Adam Balon, Rob Collard, and Dennis Lind. They had high hopes for this team Rob Collard having started the race in that car, and now we see more off track excursions as one of the Mercedes’ is going over the curbs and onto the paint on the outside. The runoff here at Paul Ricard is clever and has been this way since the track was mdesigned and built for Formula 1 back in the early 1970s. There is paved runoff here which we are seeing more commonly these days. No gravel traps. But there is this blue paint that has tungsten metal in it that acts like a piece of sandpaper if you skid off onto it and makes the car lose traction.
He's gone off at Signes. That is the #87, the sister Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3. I think Lorenzo Ferrari is behind the wheel and was the starting driver. Ferrari, the Italian (with no relation to the automaker), is sharing that Mercedes with German Mercedes sports car veteran Maximilian Gotz and Thomas Drouet of France. Safety car dispatched. I am not surprised by that in the least. Someone else is trundling along slowly on the road with a puncture, look. I think that is Alain Valente of Switzerland driving the #81 Theeba Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3. Valente sharing with Reema Juffali of Saudi Arabia and Ralf Aron of Estonia.
The safety car has indeed been dispatched and so Jules Gounon will lose some ground. Rob Collar has thoroughly clouted the wall. But now, we are readying for the restart. Check that. This is a replay. Florian Scholze tries going inside and then the Lamborghini of Rob Collar who has spun. He is trying to find space and Scholze taps him a couple times and then he gets bounced around with the weight on the front and… ker-runch! Where did Scholze lose it? Not Scholze, Matteo Ferrari. Matteo Ferrari loses it in the middle of the turn. C’est etrange.
35 minutes now into the race and we have a lead change in the Gold Cup. Max Hofer aboard the #21 Audi R8 has gone by Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes. Hofer sharing with Nicolas Baert and Maxime Soulet while Ward is partnered up with Indy Dontje and Phillip Ellis. Hofer and Comtoyou Audi were practically no place. The Austrian now leads the American with the crisp white and black livery on it. Dennis Marschall goes to second past Maro Engel. Engel into Signes gets passed. We now have one hour of motor racing on the board.
The top two cars here are covered by 2/3rds of a second. Gounon leading Marschall and Engel. Then comes Christopher Mies in the Sainteloc Audi R8 and Charles Weerts in the WRT BMW M4 GT3. Engel, Gounon, and Marschall all forced to work their way through the traffic. Christopher Mies has indeed pitted the Sainteloc Audi as well. That is the #25 car he shares with Patric Niederhauser and Simon Gachet. Marschall searching, probing for a gap. He is hungry and wants a bite of that sweet cherry up ahead.
Jules Gounon ahead. Marschal on the Mistral straight right behind slower traffic. Marschall has the side draft. He takes the lead. Door to door racing and Dennis Marschall must hold station for the time being. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Marschall dives for the pit lane and gives it up. This is a chance to go for the undercut with quick pit work. Engel in the lane too, look. Gounon now brings the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes to the lane. They have to respond to the Audi of Dennis Marschall, and the pit work that was just masterfully done by the Tresor Orange1 team.
We have other pit callers as well. Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo is one of them, sharing the car with Andrea Caldarelli, his fellow Italian, and South African Jordan Pepper. Joel Sturm is also in the lane. Sturm at the wheel of the #911 Pure Rxcing (Pure Racing) Porsche 911 GT3R. Sturm, the German driver, sharing with Aliksandr Malykhin, the British domiciled Russian driver, and with Austrian Porsche GT ace Klaus Bachler. Also in the lane, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, the Rovera/Shwartzman/Nielsen car.
Charles Weerts brings the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 into the pits for service as well. The Belgian sharing with countryman Dries Vanthoor, a longstanding member of Team WRT and South African BMW factory driver Sheldon van der Linde. This is going to be close on pit exit, right on the frontstretch between Mattia Drudi and Jules Gounon! Holy cow! Drudi is going to assume the lead of this motor race! Imagine that! On the out lap you have the advantage of brand-new Pirelli P Zero tires and that advantage here at Paul Ricard is worth a second and a half per lap!
So, it was a great call for any team that chose to put new boots on their cars. Come the end of the stint though, when those tires are wearing down, they will be crying, enough! They will feel squirmy and slimy under the car. Track position will be critical and what will we see out of Gounon? How is he going to respond? Quite the pass there, look, between two contrasting cars. That is Marco Wittman blowing past Daniel Serra on the Mistral Straight. That is BMW M4 GT3 vs. Ferrari 296 GT3. Both of the cars, ironically, powered by their 3-liter turbocharged V6 engines.
However, the aerodynamics on those cars, totally different. The sleek, arrow-shaped, missile shape of the Ferrari with bucketloads of aerodynamics, compared to the upright two door sedan style of the BMW. Marco Wittman makes the pass up to P6. Wittmann sharing the #98 Rowe Racing BMW with Nick Yelloly and Philipp Eng. He has a head of steam and enough power to pass by the Ferrari 296 GT3. More battles an hour and a half into the race. This is the #911 Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R shared by Sturm, Malykhin, and Bachler, being harried by the #79 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes.
This all-red liveried Mercedes in the hands of Arjun Maini of India, Sebastien Baud of France, and Hubert Haupt of Germany, the boss, the team owner. Haupt in the car now and poor old Malykhin spun off the road and rotated. Did he fall over or was he pushed? Honestly, we are not sure. I have no idea. Now, look, we have a serious three-way battle on the Mistral straight! This is Audi, BMW, BMW, and a Lamborghini may become the meat in the sandwich. Marco Wittmann looks like he has the power and using the draft down the Mistral straight to get by both Charle Weerts and the Audi R8 with Simon Gachet at the controls.
They are calling each other’s bluff at 270 kilometers an hour, screaming down the straightaway at full chat, top speed. Gachet in the Audi not the quickest, but with a double draft from two BMW’s he might live to fight another day headed to the end of the Mistral and barreling into Signes corner! That was an incredible battle as Weerts gives it up to Wittmann. Two BMW M4 GT3’s but for two different teams. WRT vs. Rowe Racing. That was wild! Absolutely unbelievable! That could have been the mother of all accidents if those three chaps weren’t careful.
Gilles Magnus made a pit stop and returned to the track. Magnus in the #11 Comtoyou Racing Audi R8 he is sharing with Christopher Haase and Fredric Vervisch. He has taken over from Vervisch. They had a mechanical problem reworking it into the ebb and flow of the race. Both of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3’s running seventh and eighth. Robert Shwartzman right in the wheel tracks of teammate Daniel Serra. The two cars are pressing their way back to the top of the shop as we speak now an hour and 40 minutes into a race that should last for around six hours if they make the full advertised 1,000 kilometer distance.
Being nose to tail, they are maximizing their performance. In replay we are watching that three wide battle down the Mistral straight. Clearly, the Lamborghini was the cork in the bottle that created the fizz. Weerts comprised and so is Gachet. The cars are darting around as they fly down the straightaway and Weerts knows Gachet is right on his six. Mate, where did you come from? I knew you were back there for the last 20 laps or whatever, but you tucked me up like a kipper there. Gachet catches a tow and Wittmann too really went for it. Gachet did not have the answer to Wittmann’s riddle though.
Daniel Serra is also scrapping hard as we move closer to the 1/3rd mark of this event. Car #79, five second hold on the next pit stop and one point on driving license for causing a collision with car #911. Race Director Alain Adam issues the penalty. Gachet is holding Weerts up. When you are the top five you don’t want to be the driver who loses the car’s top five status but Serra is looming large and Weerts is getting upset with Gachet in front.
Gachet closes the door. But both their lines are being compromised. Here comes Weerts again. He is not finished with business yet. Daniel Serra is right into the fight here. Serra is positioning the Ferrari well, but Weerts has gone off the road! Was their contact? Was there some argy bargy between those two? Or, did Weerts plainly and simply outbrake himself into the turn? Now, in the commentary box, Bruce Jones could very well be right. Good onya’ Bruce. I think maybe Weerts picked up a puncture and one of his tires is now flat as a pancake, or flat as a Grand Marnier crepe here in the south of France.
Something is broken on that BMW. A steering arm? A toe link? But that car is busted. It’s going no further. Game over for WRT BMW #32! I believe their team still has a few bullets left in the gun, but I’m not totally sure. There is the #46 car of Valentino Rossi, Augusto Farfus, and Maxime Martin, and I think there is also the #31 of the all-British trio of Adam Carroll, Lewis Proctor, and Tim Whale. We have seen Adam Carroll in SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge America as of late, although instead of a BMW he is driving a Mercedes in the American championship.
Onboard into turn three, turn in over the curb. He zings the tires and with contact, something broke. The right front steering arm has been snapped and perhaps the whole steering rack has been busted on impact on turn in. It is the perfect storm of being hit at the right speed at the wrong moment. Serra can follow Weerts. But both want the real estate in the corner. Weerts side by side with Serra. Serra got wrongfooted but there was no contact. We are almost two hours into the race. I wonder if Race Director Alain Adam will have to look at it.
OK. We are 1/3rd of the way through the 1,000 Kilometers of Paul Ricard and now we are riding along with the sister AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, Daniel Serra, the Brazilian, is at the wheel of it. This is a double tow past one of the Audi’s on the Mistral straight. Serra gets one tow off the AGS Events Lamborghini Huracan. Simon Gachet can’t defend and once again, the poor bloke is tucked up like a kipper down the Mistral. There’s nothing he can do with the power of that Ferrari.
Charles Weerts will be kicking himself watching this race on replay because two of his rivals have done exactly what he intended to do before he was forced into retirement for the day. Incidentally, the #8 AGS Events car we mentioned, that is the Lambroghini Huracan GT3 of French prototype sports car racer Nico Jamin sharing with Swiss drivers Antonin Borga and Leonardo Gorini. Antonin Borga another driver we have seen racing prototypes recently.
Now we move to around the two-and-a-half-hour mark of the race with the setting sun blazing here at Paul Ricard. This is an all-Mercedes scrap we are watching between Akkodis ASP and Al Manar Racing. A bit loose through Signes, look. Timur Bougslavskiy is holding station but believe you me, Fabian Schiller is pouring on the steam. The Monza winning BMW is back there too. Simon Gachet is also moving up, and now, Schiller is going to make a lunge! No dice. Boguslavskiy slams the door in his face saying, “you’ll have to do a wee bit better than that to get by me, sunshine.”
Ricardo Feller leads the motor race aboard the #40 Audi for Orange1. …And now, look, Phillip Eng has Fabian Schiller right in his crosshairs. He goes outside thinking he’s stuck the move. Now, Marco Wittman in the other BMW M4 GT3, the Rowe Racing car, is on the scene in Signes as well. Yikes! Eng right to the inside of the Mercedes and on the curb no less! Eng meanwhile, is right on Boguslavskiy’s back door and this is getting spicy!
The BMW will indeed do everything to rein in the Audi as we are closing in on halfway here at Paul Ricard in the Sunday evening twilight, or Saturday evening twilight more specifically. Onto the Mistral straight again, past the Lamborghini. I am trying to identify which Lambo that is, but it may be immaterial at this juncture. Recall that Rowe Racing took BMW to victory lane in the season opener at Monza which was back in April.
Too much curb for Eng and we could see daylight under the car! He makes the pass on Boguslavskiy and will prepare to whistle off into the distance. Traffic ahead, but I agree with former driver and color commentator Joe Osborne and think that we could see Eng begin to uncork fast lap after fast lap. In Silver Cup, Lorenzo Patrese, son of sports car and Formula 1 veteran Ricardo Patrese, he has things all his own way currently, driving the car #99 for Tresor Attempto Racing. That is the car he shares alongside Alex Aka of Germany and fellow Italian Pietro Delli Guanti.
Now, nearing the halfway mark in the race, we can see that Schiller has gone by Boguslavskiy and they have indeed swapped places in their pursuit to chase down the leaders. Out in front we still have Ricardo Feller being harried by Phillip Eng. Schiller decides to pull the pin in the grenade, gain rocket boost, and pass the identical Mercedes of Boguslavskiy like he was standing still. One of the other Mercedes’ has a whoopsie and goes off the road briefly.
Oh, my goodness! Lick the stamp and send the letter into Pont corner and Schiller sails right on past. Well, well, well. Fabian Schiller turning on the charm. Okie dokie then. We are now past halfway in the twilight here in the south of France and there is an Audi in the pit lane for scheduled service. That is the #25 Sainteloc Junior Team car. Simon Gachet looks to be completely stuffed after his stint. No, he didn’t eat too many croissants and eclairs. He’s just tired after a long driving stint. Keep this in mind because very soon to come will be the blue riband event of SRO Europe, the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps.
That race also counts for the Intercontinental GT Challenge as round two of the championship. Paul Ricard though is an easier circuit to drive from a fatigue standpoint because the Mistral straight is so long that you get a chance to rest with your foot planted on the floorboard once a lap. Trouble in Signes corner and there is a right rear tire puncture. Which car is it? Zoom in, pan in on the camera, and we’ll be able to tell. Oy yoy yoy yoy! It’s the race leader, the #40 Tresor Audi! One of the tires is completely flat!
In fact, we have already talked about the 24 Hours of Spa which you read about live. So, we are rewinding the tape as we keep speaking about this race at Paul Ricard. This was the event before and only now do I have time to tell the story. At any rate, this trouble with the tire for icardo Feller he might be able to come in the lane now. He needs to slow down as the bodywork is being destroyed. This is the #40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi of Ricardo Feller, Mattia Drudi, and Dennis Marschall! Shades of last year! He needs to go to the lane, now.
Fabian Schiller and Phillipp Eng have already passed. Slow down, mate. You will break the car. We saw cut down tires at Paul Ricard last year. That might do some serious damage as we see the #777 Al Manar Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 in the pit lane for Fabian Schiller and co-drivers Luca Stolz and Maro Engel. Now, we have moved past the halfway mark in the highlighted coverage of the race. Two hours and 48 minutes left on the board as we approach the twilight here at Paul Ricard. This was a race anticipating the darkness that is part of the 24 Hours of Spa which is why it was split, partially run in the twilight and the other half run in darkness, hence the start time being in the evening.
What horrible luck for Ricardo Feller, having a puncture, leading by 27 seconds! Game over! How completely frustrating! Just over two and a half hours to go and we have BMW ahead of Mercedes ahead of Audi. Three of the German brands duking it out. Phillip Eng, Fabian Schiller, and Christopher Mies. Nicklas Nielsen runs wide at Signes in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and Dan Harper is catching this group. Timur Boguslavsiky fourth followed closely by Andrea Caldarelli. BMW leads with two more in the top ten.
Dan Harper is flying and has passed some of the Italian GT3 cars. Harper is going to give Timur Boguslavskiy all he can handle now that it is completely dark. Harper is going to nail it! He does! He makes the clean pass at the hairpin! Bish, bash, bosh. A textbook pass from the northern Irishman. That was good! Eng’s advantage is 6.7 seconds over Fabian Schiller. 115 laps now completed. 417 miles now in the bag. Mies is catching Schiller hand over fist. Schiller feeling the heat and there will be pit stops and driver changes in another ten minutes.
Timur Boguslavskiy has to push like crazy to get by Dan Harper. Scratch that. It is the other way around. Harper was balked by a lapped car. Just over two hours to go as we move forward in the highlights as Timur Boguslavskiy completes his double stint and Akkodis ASP are putting their star, the Swiss domiciled Italian, Raffaele Marciello, behind the wheel of the Mercedes for the final stint of the motor race. They have yoyoed between fourth and fifth place. Uh oh. An hour and 55 minutes remaining now, and we have a Lamborghini in trouble, look, with a left rear puncture. A flat as a pancake, or flat as a crepe, Pirelli P Zero.
That’s poor old Andrea Caldarelli trundling back to the pit lane and he is in the middle sector and so, we have to have a Captain Cook at the sector times of the two AF Corse Ferrari 296’s of Davide Rigon and Nicklas Nielsen to see where they are. It is Caldarelli, the #63 Lamborghini Huracan Evo 2. There’s dust all over the shop on the speedway late in the going. Chrisopher Mies has also gone by Fabian Schiller. Eng, Mies, Schiller. BMW, Audi, Mercedes. The clock continues to tick in this 6 hour event, with less than an hour and a half now remaining.
Luca Stolz and Raffaele Marciello are scrapping with each other. You know Al Manar wants to beat Akkodis ASP and vice versa. Marciello good on the corner entry and gets good drive on the exit. Both cars are equal but the wing angle on one is going to have better aero performance. Side draft into the first turn and Luca Stolz goes for it while Marciello knows discretion is the better part of valor, but not for long! Back to the inside goes Luca Stolz! Stolz now gives him the space into the third turn. Risky stuff, but put it all on the line for the podium place.
Oh no! It is game over for the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting! Gatting was going to take it to the finish! Marciello is reeling in Patric Niederhauser in the Audi, and he manages to make the move with an hour and 11 minutes of racing remaining and poor old Niederhauser is losing places! Marciello ran wide out of Signes but got a huge head of steam! Something is not working with Audi #25. Hard to tell exactly what. Max Hesse has been passed in the #998 BMW by the Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco.
Marciello is catching Nick Yelloly hand over fist. Marciello is absolutely flying compard to Yellolyu and Yelloly is a sitting duck! Marciello’s pace is metronomic as Luca Stolz hits the lane for his final pit stop with 47 minutes of racing remaining in our highlights package at Paul Ricard. Cars that have been naturally stronger in the daylight hours are not as quick at night because they can’t turn on their tires. We saw this aplenty at the 24 Hours of Spa recently. Keep in mind, this event we are speaking of today, happened as the precursor to Spa.
I must agree with former racing driver and now commentator Joe Osborne and Joe’s observation that Stolz has come out in front of the Akkodis ASP entry. However, Stolz will have a tall drink of water ahead with just over 45 minutes on the board to catch both of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3’s in the hands of Antonio Fuoco in #71 and Alessio Rovera in #51. Nick Yelloly and Rowe Racing BMW have lost oodles of time. Alright, folks. Hold onto your hats because we now have just under eight minutes of racing to go in this 6 hour or 1,000-kilometer contest. …And we’ve got more trouble! The #188 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 stopped on course! This is bad news!
Henrique Chaves is on fire with a flaming left rear wheel! Three wheels on me wagon! Arjun Maini passes. That is a rare failure! Well, this is it. Time is up. The final lap. Mercedes and Akkodis ASP are going to win the Paul Ricard 1,000 Kilometers! Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Jules Gounon! They win the race from pole position! Gold Cup honors go to the #21 Comtoyou Racing Audi R8 of Maxime Soulet, Max Hofer, and Nicolas Baert. Audi win the Silver category with the #99 Attempto Racing R8 LMS of Alex Aka, Pietro Delli Guanti, and Lorenzo Patrese.
The Bronze Cup is claimed by the #79 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes AMG GT3 of Sebastien Baud, Arjun Maini, and Hubert Haupt, the team owner/driver. Car Collection Motorsport and their #24 Porsche 911 GT3R bring home the W in the Bronze Cup division for the Swiss trio of Alex Fontana, Ivan Jacoma, and Nicky Leutwiler.
Overall/Pro: #88 Marciello/Boguslavskiy/Gounon Akkodis ASP Team Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo
Gold Cup: #21 Baert/Hofer/Soulet Comtoyou Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
Silver Cup: #99 Aka/Delli Guanti/Patrese Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II.
Bronze Cup: #79 Baud/Haupt/Maini Haupt Racing Team Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo
Pro-Am Cup: #24 Fontana/Jacoma/Leutwiler Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
That’s all from Paul Ricard. We’ve already brought you the wonderful action from the 24 Hours of Spa if you were with us for that fantastic event, the blue riband GT3 race of the year. This means, only two events now remain on the 2023 SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup schedule and so we will see you next for the Nurburgring 3 Hours at the fabled Nurburgring circuit in the Eiffel Mountains of Germany and that event is fast approaching. It is coming up next weekend. We’ll see you then! Looking forward to it. For now, bon nuit and au revoir from the south of France and the Paul Ricard circuit. Bye bye.
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