Valencia, Race 1 – Engstler-Pepper win on the green carpet

A few hours after the finish of Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup in Valencia (Spain), the winners Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham (Classic Ferrari for sale) were robbed of their success. The team's duo Verstappen.com was relegated to 4th place due to yellow flags being ignored along the way.

The same penalty was applied to several other cars, which considerably upset the classification.

La McLaren No. 58 finished second overall and won the Gold Cup, while Engel placed third in the Classic Mercedes for sale-AMG No. 48. Despite its defeat, the No. 69 Ferrari still took fourth place overall, followed by the No. 30 BMW of Team WRT driven by Gilles Stadsbader and Matisse Lismont. The Belgian duo won the Silver Cup class after the initial winner, theAston Martin No. 21 of Comtoyou Racing, was penalized.

Despite their defeat, Kobe Pauwels and Jamie Day, driving the No. 21 car, still clinched the Silver Cup title with a race advantage. Their victory was virtually assured when their rival, the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG, retired due to technical issues, eliminating their last serious contender. The final spot on the Silver Cup podium went to the No. 992 Paradine Competition BMW.

The Bronze Cup title is still to be decided, but Kessel Racing will go into tomorrow's finale in a strong position to claim the crown. Blattner comfortably retained the class lead after taking over from Marschall, finishing sixth overall after penalties and four places ahead of Bashar Mardini in the Porsche No. 89. The No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG completes the podium.

Three class titles are up for grabs in tomorrow's finale. In the overall standings, the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG duo of Engel and Auer have caught up with the No. 32 Team WRT duo of Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde. The leaders are 1,5 points ahead of Marvin Kirchhöfer and Benjamin Goethe (No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren), while Pepper and Engstler are two points behind.

Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 14:45 p.m.

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