GTWCE Brands Hatch: AF Corse Ferrari and ASP Mercedes share sprint wins

AF Corse Ferrari duo Ulysse de Pauw and Pierre-Alexandre Jean took a narrow win in the first of the two races at the opening weekend of the sprint segment of the GTWCE.

De Pauw led from pole position in their Ferrari 488 GT3, a Silver Cup class entry, prior to a short safety-car period following a first-corner accident.

The Belgian then built up a lead of more than three seconds over the chasing Auto Sport Promotion Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jules Gounon.

Jean emerged from the pit cycle with a similar lead over the WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II that Dries Vanthoor had taken over from Charles Weerts.

Jean’s advantage was halved when he was held up by a backmarker and Vanthoor was able to close to within seven tenths of the Ferrari at the start of the final.

But the Audi never got close enough to make a bid for the lead, before crossing the line 1.2s in arrears of the Ferrari.

It was the first outright victory for a Ferrari since the 2015 round of a championship then known as the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at Misano when Norbert Siedler and Marco Seefried triumphed in a Rinaldi Racing-run 458 GT3.

Raffaele Marciello had picked up the mantle for the French ASP Merc squad after the sister car lost vital seconds changing the left rear in the pits when Gounon handled over to Jim Pla.

Marciello, who had taken over the car from Timur Boguslavskiy, was a couple of seconds down on Vanthoor after the pitstops but was able to close to within four tenths of the Audi at the chequered flag. The ASP Merc of Gounon and Jim Pla ended up fourth, seven seconds off the winner, after its delay in the pits.

#89 AKKODIS ASP Team Mercedes-AMG GT3: Timur Boguslavskiy, Raffaele Marciello

Photo by: SRO

ASP Mercedes ease to victory in second race

Marciel