Raffaele Marciello and, driving the second stint, Timur Boguslavskiy, won Race Two of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint Cup weekend at Magny-Cours, the #89 AKKODOS ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 taking the chequered flag 13.683 seconds ahead of the sister #88 Mercedes driven by Jim Pla, in the car he shared with Maxi Götz.
Completing the overall podium positions was the #25 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS evo II GT3 of Aurelian Panis and Patric Niederhauser.
Victory in the Silver Cup class went to the #53 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 of Pierre Alexandre Jean and Ulysse de Pauw, Jean finishing over 17 seconds ahead of the #99 Attempto Racing Audi of Alex Aka and, taking the chequered flag, Nicolas Schöll.
Class honours in the Pro-Am Cup class were taken by the #111 JP Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 of Patryk Krupiniski and Christian Klein.
Marciello started from pole after having set a new lap record at the circuit and immediately set about building a gap back to teammate Maxi Götz in the #88 car.
There was drama for Dries Vanthoor in the #32 Team WRT Audi after went into the gravel at Turn 1, losing 10 places to return to the circuit in 14th place at the end of lap 1.
Christopher Mies hunted down second-placed Götz and passed the #88 pilot at the end of the first quarter of the 60-minute contest.
By the time the driver changes came round, Marciello had built a 15-second advantage over Mies as he handed the #89 car over to Boguslavskiy. Once the driver changes had cycled through, Boguslavskiy had a solid lead over Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer in the #33 Audi with Jim Pla in third in the #88 car.
Pla pushed hard for second and closed to within just over half a second of Simmenauer with ten minutes remaining. The stewards were to intervene, however, with the #33 car being handed a 10 -second penalty for an unsafe release.
At the chequered flag, Boguslavskiy had a margin of 13.683 seconds over Pla with Aurelien Panis in third.
Raffaele Marciello now leads the overall drivers standings on 74.5 points, 3.4 points ahead of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts. Marciello’s teammate Timur Boguslavskiy is third in the overall standings on 56.54 points with Jules Gounon fourth on 35 points.
Team WRT heads the overall teams standings on 78 points, 3.5 points ahead of AKKODIS ASP team with Tresor by Car Collection in third on 42.5 points.
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS next meets in Le Castellet for the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000km where teams have the opportunity to race in darkness as they prepare for the blue riband event of the season; the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa in July.
