Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe – Engel and Auer crowned Sprint Cup champions for Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter as Rutronik Racing dominates Barcelona finale

Maro Engel and Lucas Auer are the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint Cup champions after wrapping up the title in today’s season-ending race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which saw Rutronik Racing duo Patric Niederhauser and Sven Müller secure victory aboard the #96 Porsche.

The #48 Winward Racing Team-Mann Filter pairing led the standings heading into the decider and enjoyed a trouble-free run to fourth, scoring more than enough points to secure both the teams’ and drivers’ titles. Today’s 60-minute contest also saw championship honours settled in the Gold Cup, Silver Cup and Bronze Cup classes.

Niederhauser made a clean getaway from pole and was followed into turn 1 by Tom Gamble (#159 Garage 59 McLaren) and Mattia Drudi (#7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin), both of whom made excellent starts from the second row of the grid. It was a clean opening tour, despite some contact within the pack, kicking off a race that ran green from beginning to end.

Engel took the start in the #48 Mercedes-AMG and his team was able to breathe a sigh of relief when he safely navigated the opening sequence of corners. The German picked up two spots in the process, running fourth throughout the opening stint. Meanwhile the rival #32 Team WRT BMW made a lightning start to climb from 15th on the grid to ninth, though Charles Weerts was unable to make further progress towards Engel.

The #96 Porsche completed a clean pit stop as Niederhauser handed over to Müller. The battle for overall victory was effectively over, though the fight for the podium had a long way to run. A fast turnaround from Comtoyou Racing promoted the #7 Aston Martin to second, with Nicolas Baert now at the wheel in place of Drudi. He was followed by Benjamin Goethe in the #159 McLaren, while Auer took over from Engel and held on to P4.

While the Rutronik Racing Porsche escaped up the road, a multi-car battle for the podium began to take shape. Goethe closed on to the rear of the Aston Martin, but Baert was in no mood to surrender his maiden overall podium. With the Belgian maintaining a defensive line Goethe was backed into Auer, who in turn had Maximilian Götz (#9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG) close behind.

They ran this way for the majority of the second stint. With five minutes left on the clock the German got alongside Baert at the final corner, but the Aston Martin was yet again able to repel the attack. This gave Auer his best chance to snatch a season-closing podium, but with so much to lose the Austrian took a cautious approach as the cars braked into turn 1. Goethe had survived, but the battle had cost him a final shot at P2.

Müller was a long way clear by the time the chequered flag flew, clinching a commanding triumph by a little over nine seconds to give Porsche its first-ever Sprint Cup win. Baert came home a fine second, ending a challenging Sprint Cup campaign in perfect style alongside Drudi. In third spot, Garage 59 completed a sequence of 10 consecutive points-paying finishes by taking its first overall podium of the year.

Auer narrowly missed out on the top three, but ultimately it made no difference: by finishing fourth, the #48 Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter squad and both drivers had done more than enough to secure their first Fanatec GT Europe Sprint Cup titles. The rival #32 BMW came home seventh to confirm its status as runner-up.

The battle for the Gold Cup crown was effectively settled at the start when the #111 CSA Racing Audi sustained damage at turn 1. This brought Simon Gachet into the pits for repairs, dropping the car to the rear of the field and effectively ending its chances of a strong result.

Race victory went to the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Lorenzo Patrese and Lorenzo Ferrari, who just held off the #6 Liqui-Moly Team Engstler by OneGroup Audi in a tight battle to the finish. The #6 crew of Luca Engstler and Max Hofer were therefore crowned champions with a ninth class podium from 10 races.

The Silver Cup win again went to Boutsen VDS as César Gazeau and Aurélien Panis completed a weekend sweep in the #10 Mercedes-AMG. They did everything they could to snatch the class crown, but ultimately it was not quite enough as the #30 Team WRT BMW finished second, giving Calan Williams the title. The Australian was without his regular teammate Sam De Haan this weekend, though stand-in Sean Gelael did a fine job to bring the car home second in class, banking the points that Williams required.

Rutronik Racing completed a perfect day with victory in the Bronze Cup class for its #97 Porsche of Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall. They fought a race-long battle with the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini, while the #991 Paradine Competition BMW came home third to seal the class title. This continues an impressive run of success from Darren Leung and Dan Harper, who won last year’s British GT Championship with the same combination of team and car.

The 2024 Fanatec GT Europe Sprint Cup may be over, but the Endurance Cup still has one race left to run. The final set of title-winners will be decided at Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia, which stages the season-closing six-hour event on 28–30 November.