W&S Motorsport duo Still/Kronberg win intense first race at Hockenheim, ending in overall Porsche celebrations

What a difference a day makes. Race 1 of the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club enjoyed bright summer sunshine in Hockenheim. Starting from overall Pole Position, the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche (Still/Kronberg) led all the way to take an impressive win and Pro-Am honours.

Hartvig/Schaap took maximum Silver Cup points by finishing P2 overall in the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche, while Piguet/Varutti made it a perfect Porsche triple by winning Am Cup for the seventh time this season. What’s more, this result secured the 2023 Am championship for the #10 AVR-Avvatar 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS.

The spectacular grid counting 44 cars got underway cleanly and, in a first half hour without any major incidents, the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche defended his lead with confidence. Behind, the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche battled it out for P2 with the #77 Elite Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 (Rattican/Emson) and the #3 Team Speedcar Audi R8 (Lariche/Consani) made some highly entertaining moves to climb up to fourth place.

The top four emerged out of the Pit Window in that exact same order, and the ever stronger #17 V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro (Rappange/Herremans) wanted a piece of the action up front as well. Close racing in true GT4 European Series fashion followed, but then an overly optimistic move by the #3 Team Speedcar Audi ended in drama, taking the #17 Chevrolet out of the race with him and causing a Safety Car procedure with 20 minutes left on the clock.

When the lights went back to green seven minutes later, the #77 Elite Motorsport McLaren was not able to withstand the pressure any longer and dropped well out of podium reach. The #110 Autosport GP LS Group Performance Alpine (Cauhaupe/Tirman) and #4 BCMC Motorsport powered by EastSide Motorsport Mercedes-AMG (De Fulgencio/Gogollok) took advantage, as did Gabriele Piana, charging frantically to move the #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 he had taken over from Michael Schrey up into the top five.

When an incident involving multiple cars caused a red flag with just four minutes left on the clock, Race 1 came to a premature end and all positions were fixed in place. That awarded the well-deserved overall and Pro-Am victory to Hendrik Still and Max Kronberg in the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche, and Silver Cup honours to Hartvig/Schaap in the #22 Allied-Racing 718 Cayman.

Meanwhile, Guilvert/Hamon had managed to claim second place in Pro-Am (P9 overall) in their #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT4, bringing this season's Pro-Am championship crown ever closer. And as the dust settled, no more doubts remained about the Am championship: with their seventh Am Cup win out of nice races this season, Piguet/Varutti secure the class title for AVR-Avvatar in the #10 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS!