Ferrari takes two wins at the 3 Hours of Barcelona

The 8th edition of the Barcelona Festival of Speed-Legado María de Villota has finished today at the Barcelona-Cataluña Circuit, living up to its name, and the sporting event has been a real feast for thousands of car lovers. .

The Montmeló circuit ended the weekend with plenty of action both on and off the track. The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe, GT4 European Series and McLaren Trophy Europe finals have been held on tarmac.

Attendees have been treated to three days of true excitement, with motorsport legends such as Valentino Rossi, as well as the world’s most unique and sophisticated competition unit, GT1.

A collection of modified cars, acceleration tests on the live Circuit, a Fan Zone with a Village and a shopping area, simulators, a visit to the pit lane and the starting grid are some of the proposals that this truly fun festival has prepared for the fans . , and once again they have been widely accepted.

A fierce final in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

The GT World Challenge Europe run by AWS has completed today’s visit to the Circuit. The Endurance Cup ended in a three-hour final battle with a completely unexpected finish.

At the start, the two Ferrari 296 GT3s from AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors took the lead, practically closing in on each other. The team led by Alessio Rovera, Robert Shwartzman and Nicklas Nielsen had some advantages over their colleagues Antonio Fuoco, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon, who remained in second place.

The Mercedes-AMG AlManar team (Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller) was the third candidate for victory with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, taking the last place on the podium. Shortly before the race time and after Valentino Rossi (WRT Team) left the track, the online safety car had to appear and therefore the participants took the opportunity to stop first.

With a passage through the pit lane and a driver change, the grid was a little messy for a few laps, until the Mercedes-AMG AlManar Team got the real first place. He maintained this first place until the checkered flag, although the official classification does not say the same.

A few minutes before the end of the race, the race direction announced a 5-second penalty for the leading team. Given the balance and the small distance between the participants due to the appearance of another safety car, Team Mercedes-AMG AlManar dropped to fourth place when the penalty was issued.

This has again left the two Ferraris of AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors in front, notably Alessio Rovera, Robert Shwartzman and Nicklas Nielsen in first place and Antonio Fuoco, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon in second place. Rutronik Racing (Thomas Preining, Laurin Heinrich, Dennis Olsen) took an unexpected third place given the situation, and added another brand to the fight with the Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The WRT team, the formation in which Valentino Rossi participates, unfortunately could not finish the test after the mistakes of the Italian. The BMW M4 GT3 remains in the Belgian team’s garage and has not returned to the Catalan track.

On a more positive note, the Circuit has crowned the AKKODIS ASP Team (Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO), classified fifth today, as the winner of the Endurance Cup 2023, as its drivers Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy have won. have been declared champions of the GT World Challenge Europe endurance category powered by AWS.

The European GT4 series also closes the sports course

GT World Challenge Europe’s younger brother, the GT4 European Series run by Rafa Racing Club, has also concluded its sporting season with the last race held at the Circuit, the result of which was victory and the Silver title for Hofor. Racing team with Bonk Motorsport with Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana (BMW GT4 G82).

Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering, the winning team yesterday, took second place today with its other division, the McLaren Artura GT4 driven by Alex Denning and Jack Mitchell; followed by Mirage Racing with Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (Jamie Day, Rubén Del Sarte). This complete venue has matched that of the Silver Cup category.

In the Pro-Am section, the Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Team Sainteloc Junior (Gregory Guliver, Christophe Hamon) took gold, while the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of AVR-AVVAtar (Julien Piguet, Alban Varutti) did. same in AM category. Catalan Lluc Ibáñez just missed the top 10 with NM Racing Team.

Andrés and Pintos win in the Circuit

Gonzalo de Andrés and Tomás Pintos have completed a great weekend in the McLaren Trophy Europe competition. Those of SMC Motorsport have added another victory today which has helped to support the title which they already achieved yesterday by climbing the podium in the first race. The Spanish team has become the first winner of the recently launched one-brand trophy, writing their names in the history of motorsport.

Despite his greatness throughout the year, with many podiums, victories and excellent results, there have also been other outstanding participants. Today, in particular, it was the Greystone GT and Inari Motorsport teams that took the full podium with their sports duo Mark Hopton-Euan Hankey and Mohammed Al-Khalifa-Charlie Hollings respectively.