- Lionspeed GP finishes second in class in Bronze Cup at Nürburgring
- First GTWC Europe podium in only third start
- Michael Verhagen makes successful GT3 debut
Bad Homburg, July 29, 2024 / PRESS RELEASE – Lionspeed GP came away from its home race at the third round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup with its first podium finish in the series. The No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R finished second in the Bronze Cup after a hotly contested three-hour race at the Nürburgring.
Team principal Patrick Kolb (GER) and the returning Bastian Buus (DEN) were joined for the Nürburgring race by Michael Verhagen (NED), who made his GT3 debut and turned his first competitive laps at the Nürburgring during a weekend in which weather was a constant factor.
Rain was a feature throughout both Friday testing and especially during Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Saturday, although Sunday running started under blue skies, sunshine and considerably better weather conditions. Despite an early spin for Verhagen on a still damp circuit, the No. 80 Porsche set a combined average time of 1:56.023 in qualifying, which was good enough for seventh place in Bronze Cup.
Verhagen took the start of the race at the wheel of the No. 80 Porsche on Sunday afternoon and drove a solid debut stint in GT3 competition. The Dutchman did well to stay out of trouble through a particularly incident-packed opening phase of the race as multiple cars became involved in incidents on the opening lap of the race.
At the end of the first hour, Verhagen pitted to hand the car over as the team opted to install Gold-rated Buus in order to make up positions. This worked out exactly as planned and the Danish driver stormed up to second in class before Kolb was given the task to tackle the final stint.
In the closing hour, Kolb managed to stay ahead of several factory drivers employed by rival teams to bring the No. 80 Porsche across the line in 28th place overall, but more importantly finished second place in the Bronze Cup. This marked Lionspeed’s first podium finish in GT World Challenge Europe in just its third race in the championship.
“Well in the end, it was a fantastic race,” said Kolb. “We had one mistake in qualifying. We had a good strategy, we had a good idea and thankfully it paid off. Bastian did a fantastic job in the race and gained a lot of places. In the end, we stayed out of trouble, we had good pace in the race and ended up where we should have been in qualifying.”
As a result of the podium, Lionspeed GP moves up to seventh place in the Bronze Cup standings with 32 points. The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season continues with a three-hour race at Monza on September 20-22. Before that, the team will tackle the Hankook 24H Barcelona to finish off its European GT4 campaign on September 13-15.
