Comtoyou Racing converted pole position into a commanding victory in the GT World Challenge (GTWC) Europe Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring, but the result was not enough to keep the drivers’ championship alive.
Marco Sørensen, Mattia Drudi and Nicki Thiim delivered the win in the #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO, while fourth place for Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER secured the Endurance Cup drivers’ title for Maro Engel, Lucas Auer and Luca Stolz with one round remaining.
Sørensen leads the field away
Comtoyou Racing entered Sunday knowing that victory offered its best chance of extending the title fight to the Portimão finale. After Sørensen, Drudi and Thiim claimed pole earlier in the day, Sørensen immediately put the Aston Martin’s advantageous starting position to use.
He retained the lead ahead of Maxime Martin in the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car and Bastian Buus in the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche. The leading trio initially remained close together, while Joseph Loake’s #59 Garage 59 McLaren began to apply pressure from behind.
Further back, the opening stages produced several incidents. Contact caught out the #51 AF Corse Ferrari and also affected the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi and #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, while race control later issued drive-through penalties to the #74 Ferrari and #111 CSA Racing McLaren for their involvement in the opening-lap trouble. The #96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini also made an early unscheduled visit to the pits after suffering a puncture.
Comtoyou capitalises on the first interruption
Sørensen could not initially escape from Martin and Buus, but the first Full Course Yellow eventually gave Comtoyou an opportunity to strengthen its grip on the race. The neutralisation followed an incident which left the #44 Greystone GT McLaren in the gravel. Comtoyou completed its first driver change under the Full Course Yellow, with Drudi taking over and retaining the effective lead. The neutralisation subsequently became a Safety Car period, bunching the field together before racing resumed.
Drudi led the restart ahead of the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, with the Garage 59 McLaren, #32 Team WRT BMW and #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry also firmly in contention. Another major incident soon interrupted proceedings when the #45 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari and #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche crashed. Further incidents and neutralisations continued to disrupt the middle phase of the three-hour contest, forcing teams to react quickly with their pit strategies.
The interruptions temporarily produced an unusual order as cars worked through different strategy cycles. With 30 minutes remaining, the #98 ROWE Racing BMW led the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, while the eventual winning #7 Aston Martin sat third.
Late stint limits reshape the podium
The apparent battle at the front between Raffaele Marciello in the #98 BMW and Dorian Boccolacci in the #2 Porsche ultimately came with a complication: neither could complete the race in its existing stint without exceeding the permitted driving-time limit. Marciello pitted with only a few minutes remaining, while Boccolacci continued before allowing the genuine leaders through during the final lap with a penalty expected.
That returned Thiim and the #7 Aston Martin to the head of the classification, completing a near-perfect day for Comtoyou Racing. Sørensen, Drudi and Thiim ultimately covered 83 laps and won by 5.751 seconds.
Behind them, the final podium order changed again after the chequered flag. The #59 Garage 59 McLaren had run second behind Thiim, but a 10-second penalty dropped Marvin Kirchhöfer, Dean Macdonald and Loake to 10th. The penalty promoted Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts to second for Team WRT, while Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon secured third for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. It marked the team’s first Endurance Cup podium.
Fourth place delivers the championship
The Garage 59 penalty also had major championship consequences. Auer, Engel and Stolz needed to secure fourth place in the race at the Nürburgring to put the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup drivers’ title beyond reach. The #48 Mercedes-AMG had spent much of the race just outside that position, but the late reshuffling elevated Stolz to fourth and confirmed the title with October’s Portimão finale still to come.
The trio secured the championship through remarkable consistency. Although the #48 has yet to win an Endurance Cup race in 2026, Auer, Engel and Stolz finished second at Paul Ricard, Monza and the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa before taking fourth at the Nürburgring.
Class victories and titles decided
Tresor Attempto Racing took Gold Cup honours with the #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II. Dylan Pereira brought the car home seventh overall alongside Andrea Frassineti and Alex Aka, ahead of the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche and #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari in the class classification. The Gold Cup championship will now be decided at Portimão.
HRT Ford Racing secured its first GT World Challenge class victory with the Mustang GT3 in the Silver Cup. Niklas Kalus completed the decisive late overtake to give himself, Nicolas Baert and Eduardo Coseteng the class win. However, second place proved sufficient for the #30 Team WRT BMW crew of Matisse Lismont, Ignacio Montenegro and Amaury Cordeel to seal the Silver Cup championship with one round remaining.
In the Bronze Cup, Kiern Jewiss, Charles Dawson and Reece Barr took victory for 2 Seas Motorsport in the #222 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Kessel Racing finished third in class with its #74 Ferrari, a result that secured the Bronze Cup teams’ title, while the drivers’ championship remains open heading into the finale.
The Endurance Cup concludes at Portimão from 16–18 October, where Comtoyou Racing will arrive with another victory to its name but with the overall drivers’ crown already belonging to Auer, Engel and Stolz.
GTWC Europe Endurance Cup Nürburgring Race full results
