Akkodis ASP Mercedes Wins Race 1 From Pole At Brands

Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy got their 2023 World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup campaign off to a perfect start today at Brands Hatch, with a dominant victory from pole position in the opening race of the season.

The duo, driving the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3, went almost entirely unchallenged in the first hour-long encounter of the year. However, the car crossed the line just six-tenths up on the #40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 that eventually finished second after a nervy finish for the ASP crew.

Marciello, who scored pole for the winning duo yesterday, took the start and built a lead of around eight seconds during his stint. The team opted to keep him in the car as long as possible, pitting right at the end of the pit window for the driver change.

Boguslavskiy’s task in the second half of the race was simple: manage the gap and bring it home. He succeeded, though he didn’t have the pace to keep the gap comfortable by the end. He was chased down in the closing laps by Ricardo Feller, who got within a second but was unable to mount a true challenge for the lead.

Had there been an additional lap, it may have been a different story. The fans trackside were denied a grandstand finish by a matter of seconds, as time expired just before the pair reached the finish line.

Boguslavskiy’s performance, despite being enough for a victory, clearly didn’t meet the Akkodis ASP team’s expectations as celebrations post-race were rather muted.

“It’s difficult to do more. Today was enough,” Marcieillo said, before Boguslavskiy admitted he was struggling for outright speed.

“I was worried about traffic,” his teammate revealed, “but I know it’s hard to overtake. I have been struggling a lot since Monza, I don’t know why. I hope to come back stronger at Paul Ricard,” he said.

Behind Feller, Dries Vanthoor steered the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 that he shares with Charles Weerts to the final podium place, coming home three seconds behind the winning Mercedes. It was a strong start to the year for the reigning champions.

Just outside the top three, there was a lot of squabbling for places in the top five in the closing stages.

Christopher Haase (#11 ComToYou Racing Audi) made a daring move at Clearways to get past Giacomo Altoe’s #14 Emil Frey Ferrari 296 with just over two minutes to go before the pair muscled past Thierry Vermuelen in the sister #69 Emil Frey Ferrari on the Grand Prix loop on the final lap. Franck Perera saw the opportunity to climb the order too and followed them through past the #69 in his #60 VSR Lamborghini.

They would eventually finish fourth, fifth and sixth, gaining an extra place seconds later when Adrien De Leener dropped like a stone from fourth to eighth, struggling for power in the run to the line in the #54 Dimanic GT Porsche.

Of this group, in addition to the #54 crew, Emil Frey’s duo of Vermuelen and Albert Costa will have hoped for more. Costa sat second throughout the first half of the race, before a slow pit stop dropped the car to sixth by the time the pit window closed. After the late-race dicing Vermuelen would go on to finish seventh. It would have been eight had the #54 not slowed at the end of the race.

Further down the order, the #9 Boutsen VDS Audi took the Gold class win with a 10th place finish, just ahead of the #99 Tresor Attempto Audi that crossed the line 11th and won the Silver class.

Race 2 is set to start at 16:10 local time in the UK.

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Image courtesy of SRO