Challenging weekend for Walkenhorst Motorsport at the Nürburgring

The third race weekend of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup took place at the Nürburgring. Walkenhorst Motorsport lined up with three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s and travelled to the Eifel with great motivation after a promising 24-hour race in Spa. Many fans and guests supported the Aston Martin racing team at the race on the traditional circuit, which is well known to the team.

"The test and practice sessions on Friday and Saturday were a challenge for everyone: typical Eifel weather with recurring heavy rain made it difficult to collect data for the dry race. In addition, the track was repeatedly washed clean, so that any rubber abrasion was washed away and the track was therefore quite slippery," reports Walkenhorst Motorsport Managing Director Jörg Breuer.

It was already clear in qualifying on Sunday morning that it was going to be a difficult day for the team. Lorcan Hanafin crashed heavily in the Michael Schumacher S in the Silver Cup car. The young Brit survived the crash unharmed, but the Vantage was badly damaged. "Many thanks to our team for the great job of repairing the badly damaged car in time for the start of the race," said Breuer, praising the racing team's experienced mechanics.

But the repair did not pay off. After around two hours of racing, consequential damage from the accident forced Romain Leroux to retire, sharing the car with his French compatriot Maxime Robin and Hanafin.

The three Aston Martin factory drivers David Pittard, Ross Gunn and Henrique Chaves took turns in the Pro car with starting number #34. Portuguese driver Chaves started the race from 17th on the grid and survived the chaotic first lap unscathed, making up six positions straight away. During the three-hour race on the Nürburgring's GP circuit, the car was involved in hard-fought duels and multiple battles for a long time, which caused tension in the Walkenhorst Motorsport pits. The car moved up into the top 10 at times, but lost important seconds after a good pit stop in the final stint, with the result that Gunn saw the chequered flag in 13th position, narrowly missing out on the points.

Ben Green and Mex Jansen started together with Tim Creswick in the Bronze Cup car of the team from Lower Saxony. At the start of the second hour of the race, the young Dutchman Jansen suffered a puncture and had to make an unscheduled stop in the pit lane to have the damaged tyre changed. The additional pit stop caused the car to lose a lot of time, so Jansen and Green started a race to catch up in the remaining race time and were able to close a gap of over half a minute on the other cars in the class. The trio ultimately finished the race in twelfth place in the Bronze Cup.

"To be honest, we lacked a bit of speed in the race compared to the absolute top group. We will investigate in detail what caused this and continue to improve," explains Walkenhorst Motorsport Managing Director Niclas Königbauer. "The final result is not what we expected before the weekend. We will now work hard to ensure that we can fight for good results again with all three cars at the upcoming race weekend in Monza."

The fourth race weekend of the Fanatec GT World Endurance Cup will take place in Monza from 20 to 22 September. The race track in northern Italy, which recently underwent massive modernisation work, is considered one of the fastest European race tracks and is characterised by its four long straights.