Misano - McLaren's first GT World Challenge success in nine years

The McLaren 720S GT3 claimed its first championship victory thanks to Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer. This second race of the Italian meeting was marked by a dramatic crash.

Published 20/07/2025 à 18:41

Comment on this article! ⁰

Misano – McLaren's first GT World Challenge success in nine years

The victorious McLaren 720S GT3 in Italy. © SRO / JEP

It had been nine years since McLaren had not won a single event in GT World Challenge Europe. The anomaly was repaired by the Garage 59 team this Sunday, July 20 at the Misano circuit. In Italy, Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer continued their great summer (pole at the 24 Hours of Spa at the end of June).

The German duo resisted the thunderous return of Maro Engel and Lucas Auer (Mercedes) in the final laps. For Goethe, this is the first success in the discipline at only 22 years old, while Kirchhöfer had not lifted a winner's cup since 2019 when he was playing for Aston Martin. Patrick Niederhauser and Sven Müller (Porsche) complete the podium. Winners on Saturday evening, Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello (BMW) were fighting for the podium until a penalty relegated them to the back of the pack.

The race was interrupted for nearly three hours following a dramatic accident. The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 3, driven by Georgi Donczew, was sent careening into the wreckage by Darren Leung's BMW M2 GT4 after fifteen minutes of racing.

Red flag 🔴 A huge accident for the Grasser Lamborghini.

Fortunately, driver Georgi Donczew is out of the car immediately.

📺 https://t.co/oLWOzLjBGz #GTWorldEurope | #GTMisano pic.twitter.com/Fs0X4c7XH1

— GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS (@GTWorldChEu) July 20, 2025

The impact ripped open the crash barriers and exploded the fuel tank, causing a massive fire. Back on the track, the wreck was struck by a Porsche 911 GT3 R as Georgi Donczew was unclipping his harness. The driver got out of the car under his own power and took shelter; a miracle!

Darren Leung then spoke to the GT World Challenge Europe microphone: "I went to check on him to see if he was okay and to apologize. I'm glad he got out of the car quickly. I have to recheck the replays; it's difficult to give my opinion on this accident. I think there was a bit of confusion between the two of us. It was a very small contact that caused huge consequences; it's very unfortunate."