•  Lionspeed GP picks up first Endurance Cup podium finish of season on home soil
• Gabriel Rindone, Patrick Kolb and Ricardo Feller finish second in Bronze Cup
• Endurance Cup season to wrap up at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in October

Lionspeed GP returned to the podium in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup after a hard-fought race at the Nürburgring. Gabriel Rindone, Patrick Kolb and Ricardo Feller finished second in Bronze Cup on home-soil during the three-hour race at the German circuit.

The Eifel venue, a regular fixture on the GTWC Europe calendar for more than a decade, was the site of Lionspeed’s last Endurance Cup podium when it finished second in class last year. Although the team has enjoyed success in Sprint Cup competition this year and remains in title contention there, it had so far frustratingly seen its strong performances in the longer races go unrewarded.

This changed on Sunday when Rindone, Kolb and Feller brought home a second-place finish in the Bronze Cup category after an intense three-hour race around the 5.1-kilometer circuit.

A field of nearly sixty cars took the start of the race on Sunday afternoon, with Lionspeed’s No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R starting the race in the midfield. In the close opening exchanges, where it is easy to have your competitive run curtailed by picking up damage, Rindone did well to remain out of trouble and completed a strong and clean opening stint.

From there, the team made the strategic decision to put Porsche-contracted driver Feller in the car for the second stint at a time where many teams opted to deploy their Silver-rated drivers. This worked exactly as intended, as Feller stormed up the order and brought the No. 80 Porsche into contention for the podium.

A hair-raising moment then occurred towards the end of Feller’s stint. Having closed up to the leader in the Bronze Cup category, the Swiss racer briefly ended up in the gravel trap through no fault of his own due to contact between two cars in front of him. He managed to escape the gravel and, with the class leader having been caught up in the aforementioned incident, moved into the lead of the class before handing over to Kolb.

Kolb then drove a pulse-raising closing stint, fighting for the class victory amidst cars from other classes. Ultimately, the No. 80 Porsche came home in second place, just 14 seconds off the class lead.

The result marks Lionspeed’s first Endurance Cup podium since Nürburgring last year and represents a much-deserved breakthrough for Rindone and Feller in particular after a season in which they have frequently displayed race-winning speed but often lacked the luck needed to convert that to results.

For the team at large, the podium brings another highlight during Lionspeed’s already impressive second season as an independent GT racing operation, which previously included two class victories in Sprint Cup competition.

The Endurance Cup season will wrap up at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on October 10-12. Before that, however, Lionspeed will turn its focus to the Sprint Cup finale at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on September 19-21. There, the team has a shot at the Bronze Cup championship, coming into the deciding round second in the standings with Bashar Mardini and Bastian Buus.