Paul Ricard: Pier Guidi and AF Corse champions

The GT World Challenge Europe final turned into a classico Porsche vs Ferrari. At the end of an intensely suspenseful race, AF Corse's #488 Ferrari 51 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Côme Lédogar and Tom Blomqvist won at Paul Ricard, thus offering the title to the Italian, the sole driver of the crew to have completed all the races.

Having started second behind the SMP Racing sister car, we can think that the Ferrari had a quiet race. On the contrary.

From the first minutes, the car lacked pace and gradually fell down the hierarchy until fifth place. Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet took the opposite path. The trio of the No. 911 GPX Racing Porsche 3 GT12 R, starting from eighth place, found themselves in the lead of the race just before the end of the first stint. From that moment on, the crew seemed significantly faster and was up to fifteen seconds ahead of the pack.

But Ferrari had not said its last word. With Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel for the final stints, the 51 had regained its qualifying pace and began its victorious ride by overtaking the excellent FFF Racing Lamborghini in the hands of Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli and Dennis Lind. The turning point came during the last pit stop. Renowned for its effectiveness in strategy, AF Corse achieved a masterstroke by only changing the two left tires, the most in difficulty on the Paul Ricard circuit. Enough to pass in front of the GPX Racing Porsche.

In the end, the latter was less than two seconds late at the finish, while a single safety car disrupted the flow of the race. If we expand, the first four are held in less than fifteen seconds. The #63 Lamborghini of FFF Racing finished on the third step of the podium while Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Christopher Mies placed fourth in the #32 Audi of Team WRT.

Long in the top 10 and fighting for the championship, the Mercedes AKKA-ASP of Timur Boguslavskiy, Raffaele Marciello and Maxi Buhk experienced a problem with the front splitter which cost him a lap. However, she keeps the title in the general classification for Timur Boguslavskiy, without having won either the sprint or the endurance.

In Silver, victory went to the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini driven by Patrick Kujala, Frederik Schandorff and Alex Macdowall

In Pro-Am Alex West Chris Goodwin Marvin Kirchhofer wins the title with theAston Martin from Garage 59