Auer and Engel already have the crown, so Portimão’s title fight is in Bronze
Lucas Auer and Maro Engel can no longer be caught in the GT World Challenge Europe overall standings, but three crews can still win the Bronze Cup on Saturday
SRO says the overall, Gold Cup and Bronze Cup champions of GT World Challenge Europe will be crowned at Portimão this weekend. The official standings show that two of those three titles can no longer change hands on points. Only the Bronze Cup is still open going into Saturday’s three-hour finale.
A three-hour race pays 25 points for the win and one for pole, so 26 points are the most anyone can add at Portimão.
Auer and Engel can no longer be caught
Lucas Auer and Maro Engel lead the overall standings, which combine Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup, on 131.5 points. Sprint Cup champions Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus are next on 102, 29.5 behind, with Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts on 97. With 26 points left, neither pair can close the gap.
The two Mercedes drivers had already won the Endurance Cup at the Nürburgring with Luca Stolz in the number 48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER car. Their overall lead comes from racing both cups: in the Sprint Cup they share the number 48 Winward Racing Mercedes. Engel also won the DTM finale at Hockenheim on Sunday.
The Gold Cup is settled too. Thomas Fleming and Louis Prette of Garage 59 have 169.5 points, 33.5 more than Simon Gachet of CSA Racing.
Three crews left in the Bronze Cup
Dennis Marschall leads the Bronze Cup on 161.5 points in the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, which he shares with Dustin Blattner and Lorenzo Patrese at Portimão. Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikhov, in the number 87 Winward Racing Mercedes with Gabriele Piana, are 20.5 behind on 141. Darren Leung has 136 in the number 991 Paradine Competition BMW.
The arithmetic is simple for Marschall. If Dienst and Salikhov win the class, seventh in Bronze is enough for him. Leung needs the class win from class pole and Marschall leaving without a point. He also has a busy weekend: Leung is one of the drivers racing both at Portimão and at the WEC round in Barcelona, Sportscar365 reports.
Eddie Cheever, on 135, is out by half a point: even a class win from pole would leave him on 161. He and Peter Dempsey did take the Sprint Cup’s Bronze title for Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing in Barcelona, but the overall Bronze crown will go elsewhere.
Marschall’s season
Marschall has scored Bronze points in every Endurance Cup round this year. He took the full 25 at Monza and at the 24 Hours of Spa, where he also collected the class pole point, and added 15 at the Nürburgring. Dienst has the stronger recent Endurance form, with 24 points at Paul Ricard and 18 at the Nürburgring.
Our arithmetic
Our read: the title is Marschall’s to lose. Three hours at Portimão leave little room for a Bronze crew to recover from a drive-through or contact, and seventh in class is not a high bar. Winward’s chance depends on a class win and real trouble for the Kessel Ferrari, not just a slow stop.
What else is decided at Portimão
The Silver Cup was settled before the finale. For the Pro crews, Saturday is about the race win, with Max Verstappen making his debut in the number 3 Mercedes-AMG, while Mercedes-AMG defends a narrow lead in the global manufacturers’ title. The full field is in our Portimão entry list. The race starts on Saturday 17 October at 17:00 local time, 18:00 in the Netherlands.
Can anyone stop Marschall, or does the Bronze Cup go to the Kessel Ferrari? Tell us in the comments.
