The heat was turned up on the Sprint Cup title battle last weekend. The trip to Hockenheim saw the lead in the drivers’ standings change hands twice, while a new challenger emerged as the season passed its halfway mark.
Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter snatched the advantage with Race 1 victory for Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, only for Team WRT to return to the top when Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts beat their rivals to runner-up in the second outing. This is developing into one of the best duels we have ever seen for the Sprint crown.
But is it really a two-horse race? Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen won Sunday’s contest for Emil Frey Racing and are by no means out of contention. Indeed, having made the breakthrough and captured a maiden Fanatec GT Europe win, the #14 Ferrari crew might have hit form at exactly the right time.
The trip to Germany brought plenty more stories, including some standout performances from the leading Gold Cup and Silver Cup crews, as well as a perfect weekend for the new Bronze Cup leader. With the next stop on the Endurance Cup tour just a few days away, this is the Final Word on Hockenheim 2024.
• Auer and Engel took victory in Race 1, holding off the charging #32 BMW to bank their second Sprint Cup win of the campaign and a vital haul of points. They backed this up with third in the second outing, notching up a fifth podium from six races aboard the #48 Mercedes-AMG.
• Ben Green and Konsta Lappalainen both became first-time Fanatec GT Europe winners by triumphing in Race 2. Green is the first British driver to take overall victory at a Sprint Cup round since Ricky Collard did so at the Nürburgring in 2019, while Lappalainen is the first Finn to earn an overall win in Sprint.
• Emil Frey Racing scored its first outright victory since the Sprint Cup visited Zandvoort in 2021. By winning with the Ferrari 296 GT3, the Swiss outfit became the first team to secure an overall Fanatec GT Europe win with three different brands, having previously triumphed with Lexus and Lamborghini.
• The #32 Team WRT finished second in both races. Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts climbed 17 positions to take runner-up spot in the opening contest, while the second was a comparatively straightforward run from P3 to P2. The Belgian duo left Hockenheim with a two-point advantage over Auer and Engel at the top of the Sprint Cup standings.
• The same three crews finished on the overall podium in both races. This is a rare occurrence: it last happened during the final round of the 2019 Sprint Cup season at the Hungaroring. Coincidentally, Engel was also involved on that occasion, driving a Mercedes-AMG for the Black Falcon squad.
• After a tricky run of Sprint outings, Boutsen VDS returned to form in Race 2. The #9 Mercedes-AMG came home fourth with Jules Gounon at the wheel after Maximilian Götz drove a strong first stint from 12th on the grid. The car has struggled with qualifying pace at recent events but delivered a strong race performance on Sunday.
• The #159 Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Gamble and Benji Goethe scored points in both races for the third Sprint event in a row. This consistency has helped them to sixth in the standings with two meetings to run. The last time a McLaren crew finished higher in the Sprint Cup was 2013, when Sébastien Loeb and Álvaro Parente placed fourth with their MP4-12C GT3.
• Mattia Drudi and Nicolas Baert scored their best Sprint Cup finish of the season in Race 2. The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin crossed the line in P4 but was penalised for exceeding track limits and slipped to sixth in the final classification. This was nevertheless an encouraging performance, particularly from youngster Baert.
• A tough Hockenheim weekend for Tresor Attempto Racing has effectively ended the team's title defence. It could have been very different: Ricardo Feller qualified second for Race 2 and was a contender for the win, only for suspension failure to bring his challenge to an end. It leaves the #99 crew of Feller and Alex Aka 58 points adrift of Vanthoor and Weerts with 70 left to score.
• Liqui-Moly Team Engstler by OneGroup was the Gold Cup standout at Hockenheim. The German squad switched brands ahead of the event, swapping Audi for Lamborghini. Luca Engstler and Max Hofer had been competitive with the R8, but they appeared even more at home aboard the Huracán. This was borne out by the results: they were fastest in their class in Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying and then bagged both poles, as well as overall pole for Race 2 thanks to Engstler.
• The team took a comfortable victory in the opening contest and looked set to win Race 2, only for a slow pit stop to drop the car down the order. Hofer recovered to finish third in class, though the #6 Lamborghini seemingly had the pace to fight for an overall podium and perhaps even the win.
• Despite this setback, Engstler and Hofer lead the Gold Cup standings by three points from the Saintéloc Racing Audi line-up of Paul Evrard and Gilles Magnus. The #111 CSA Racing Audi crew of Lucas Légeret and Simon Gachet are also in the hunt, 11.5 points off the top, after finishing P3 in Race 2.
• Tresor Attempto Racing won the second Gold Cup contest with its #88 Audi of Lorenzo Patrese and Lorenzo Ferrari, who were making their first appearance in the class at a Sprint event. Patrese and Ferrari also earned a seventh-place overall finish to cap a strong showing from the young Italians.
• Hockenheim produced a number of very notable performances from Silver Cup crews. The big story was Eliseo Donno, who scored his maiden overall pole on Saturday morning aboard the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. The Italian and his co-driver, Thomas Fleming, went on to claim class victory in Race 1. Fleming was also impressive on his return from a back injury, showing he had lost none of his speed by taking a commanding Race 2 pole.
• Team WRT duo Calan Williams and Sam De Haan sealed Race 2 honours. The #30 BMW crew won the Pit Stop Challenge at Hockenheim, while Williams was especially quick during his Sunday stint. They were further rewarded with fifth at the chequered flag and sit an impressive seventh in the overall standings.
• More importantly, Williams and De Haan lead the Silver Cup title battle by 29.5 points with four races to run. Indeed, they have a realistic chance of sealing the class crown next time out at Magny-Cours.
• Boutsen VDS finished second in Race 2, returning to the podium for the first time since the opening event at Brands Hatch. Like the sister Pro car, the #10 Mercedes-AMG has tended to show better pace during the races than in qualifying this term.
• Saintéloc Racing claimed P3 in Race 1, maintaining a quietly impressive run of performances from single-seater graduate Ivan Klymenko. The young Ukrainian was on class pole at Misano, and qualified second – as well as an excellent eighth overall – for Race 2 at Hockenheim. He was joined for the German event by Marcus Paverud.
• Century Motorsport established itself as firm favourite for the Bronze Cup title with a double win at Hockenheim. Darren Leung and Dan Harper reprised their British GT title-winning form to bag a pair of victories abroad the #991 BMW.
• Leung was crucial to the squad’s Race 2 triumph. After qualifying at the back of the field, the Brit made up a remarkable nine positions on the opening lap to bring the #991 BMW into contention. It moved into the lead after the pit stops, taking over from the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche after the German squad lost five seconds to its rivals.
• Barwell Motorsport came home second in both races at Hockenheim, while Sky Tempesta Racing earned a pair of P3 finishes in Germany. Both squads retain a good shot at the title: the Sky Tempesta pairing of Hui/Cheever is 11.5 points off top, while Barwell's crew of Collard/Mitchell is 16.5 points adrift.
• The #188 Garage 59 McLaren was the fastest Bronze Cup car over one lap – demonstrated by a pair of class poles – but Miguel Ramos and Louis Prette went unrewarded at Hockenheim. The opening race was scuppered by a broken alternator belt, while Ramos was tipped into a spin early in the second, consigning the McLaren to a ninth-place finish.
• Eliseo Donno's pole position for Race 1 (1m37.349s) proved to be the fastest lap posted at Hockenheim. This was the first time in 2024 that a car from outside the Pro class has paced a Fanatec GT Europe weekend. The best racing lap came from Ben Green, who set a 1m39.139s as he pulled away from the field in the second half of Race 2.
• Hockenheim saw Christopher Haase absent from a Fanatec GT Europe weekend for the first time since the 2017 Sprint Cup finale at the Nürburgring, ending a run of 63 consecutive events. This does not quite compare with Dries Vanthoor, however: the Belgian has been ever-present since the start of the 2016 season, participating in 83 consecutive events across Sprint and Endurance.
• The 2024 Fanatec GT Europe campaign continues in just a few days’ time when the Nürburgring hosts the third round of the Endurance Cup (26–28 July). The Sprint Cup resumes with its penultimate event of the season at Magny-Cours on 23-25 August.