Maro Engel claimed his second career FIA GT World Cup victory after a close battle between the leading groups on a wet Guia Circuit. The Mercedes-AMG ace took advantage of Antonio Fuoco and Raffaele Marciello to join him in the final stages of the race.
Nine years after winning the inaugural FIA GT World Cup, the German scored his third successive win and second for Mercedes-AMG in the world’s most prestigious GT3 mechanical sprint race. The previous two editions with current BMW man Raffaele Marciello.
The race began with the safety car leading the way for the first four laps, with 22 runners competing in 12 rounds of racing action to decide the 2024 FIA GT World Cup.
As the race began, polesitter Marciello took up the lead in his BMW M4 GT3 alongside fellow front starter Dries Vanthoor and Ferrari’s Fuoco and Engel. They tried to get around the outside of the Italians while negotiating the Lisboa corner.
From that moment on, another BMW, Augusto Farfus, was barely behind in the top five.
Vanthoor was initially able to stay within half a second of the race leader, but his attention quickly shifted from attack to defense and third placed Fuoco looked very fast.
With nine laps remaining, the 296 GT3, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans winner behind the wheel, successfully attacked the Belgian M4 GT3 heading into R Bend, the final corner of the circuit.
From that moment on, the situation worsened for Vanthoor, who immediately came under pressure from Engel. The pair came together on a mountainous section of the circuit, with the Team WRT BMW driver grazing the wall after a nudge from Engel at Turn 12, which ultimately forced him to retire the car.
Meanwhile, Fuoco continued to chase down Marciello and within one lap he had reduced the gap to his leading compatriot from 1.5 seconds to 0.4 seconds. Three laps from the checkered flag, Fuoco now repeated his R bend at the expense of the race leader.
But the race was not over yet and the pair continued their battle for the coveted FIA GT World Cup. In the end, the win was meaningless for either of them as both cars made contact but failed to clear the corner and both braked themselves on the second lap going into Lisboa Corner.
This allowed Engel to take over the lead and take his second FIA GT World Cup win, more than 11 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. The German joined Vanthoor and received a five-second penalty, but this did not change the finishing order.
Farfus, the 2018 FIA GT World Cup winner, took second place this weekend, capitalizing on success for Macau-based Team KRC in his M4 GT3, while Sheldon van der Linde rounded out the top three in another BMW.
