GRT picks up first Sprint Cup win at Magny Cours, Garage 59 first to win 2 this season

Text: Rick Kiewiet

Images: SRO

A mere two weeks after the Misano round, under the floodlights of Magny-Cours, two different winners emerged, though the front-runners remained largely the same. While Garage 59 and GRT Grasser split the victories, consistency again proved key for WRT’s Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde, who leave France still at the head of the standings. With Valencia looming as the decider, the Sprint Cup title race is now more finely poised than ever.

Race 1

Grasser Racing’s #63 Lamborghini of Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper became the seventh different winner in as many Sprint Cup races this season. Starting from pole, Engstler kept the lead through the opening corners, chased by Patric Niederhauser in the #96 Rutronik Porsche. The Adelaide hairpin produced immediate drama: Alessio Rovera’s #51 AF Corse Ferrari was spun around in the midfield chaos, while the #111 CSA McLaren received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident. A multi-car crash at the same spot one lap later brought out the safety car and neutralized the early action.

When racing resumed, Engstler steadily pulled a small margin over Niederhauser. The duel continued through the pit window, where a slow change on the Lamborghini’s front-left tyre allowed Rutronik to edge ahead. Sven Müller emerged just in front of Pepper, but the South African wasted little time to close the gap. After shadowing the Porsche for several laps, Pepper seized his chance at the restart following a Full Course Yellow: cutting underneath Müller at Château d’Eau and completing the move for the lead.

From there, Pepper controlled the pace into the darkness, crossing the line a little over a second clear of Müller to secure Grasser’s first Sprint Cup victory since 2018. The #32 Team WRT BMW completed the podium after an early stop and rapid out-lap vaulted Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde past their rivals, including main championship contenders Engel and Auer in the #48 Winward Mercedes, who finished fourth. Boutsen VDS took its best result of the year with fifth.

Garage 59 continued its strong Gold Cup campaign with Louis Prette and Tom Fleming taking another class victory in sixth overall. In Silver, Comtoyou Racing’s Aston Martin of Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels scored back-to-back wins, moving into the championship lead. The Bronze Cup also changed hands: Lionspeed GP’s Bashar Mardini and Bastian Buus clinched their second win of the year, enough to snatch the points lead from the Kessel Ferrari crew after they were forced to fight back from the very rear of the grid.

Race 2

Garage 59 returned to winning ways in Race 2, with Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe becoming the first repeat victors of the season. From pole, Kirchhöfer immediately established control and built a 3.3-second gap over Jordan Pepper’s GRT Lamborghini before the stops.

The lead remained intact through the pit window, but Goethe rejoined into traffic and soon found himself with Luca Engstler’s Huracán filling his mirrors. Engstler tried everything to unseat the McLaren, most notably when he emerged side by side out of the Adelaide hairpin and forced Goethe to cut across the Nürburgring chicane. The move was deemed fair, and despite relentless pressure in the closing laps, Engstler was forced to settle for second, just 0.156 seconds behind.

Once again, Team WRT salvaged a podium with Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde, whose consistency keeps them atop the championship standings. They now lead Kirchhöfer and Goethe by just 1.5 points heading into the Valencia finale, with four other crews still mathematically in play.

Behind the leading trio, AF Corse secured fourth for Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera, while Rutronik Racing surged up the order to fifth thanks to a rapid pit stop. Sixth went to Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz in the Boutsen VDS Mercedes after a penalty demoted the #50 AF Corse Ferrari.

Saintéloc Racing claimed a clear Gold Cup victory with Gilles Magnus and Paul Evrard, while Comtoyou Racing’s Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels extended their Silver Cup winning streak to three. In Bronze, Rinat Salikhov and Marvin Dienst secured the class win for Winward Racing, resisting late pressure from the Kessel Ferrari of Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall.

Post-race penalties reshuffled the order, with Barwell Motorsport’s Lamborghini and Paradine Competition’s BMW each handed 10 seconds for Full Course Yellow infringements. The Barwell crew dropped from seventh to 11th overall, while the #992 BMW fell from second to fourth in Silver.