• Lionspeed GP picks up second Sprint Cup win of season at Magny-Cours
• Bashar Mardini and Bastian Buus remain in title contention heading to Valencia finale
• Gabriel Rindone and Ricardo Feller continue to be hamstrung by poor luck

Lionspeed GP picked up its second GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup victory of the season as Bashar Mardini and Bastian Buus took the Bronze Cup win during Race 1 at Magny-Cours, remaining in championship contention heading into the season finale.

Mardini and Buus triumphed during a hotly contested opening race at the French circuit, which started at sunset and finished under the cover of darkness. Buus, taking the start in the No. 89 Lionspeed Porsche 911 GT3 R, laid the groundwork for the victory with a tremendous opening lap to climb into the class lead from third on the grid. From there, he maintained the lead and set the fastest lap of the race in Bronze Cup before pitting to hand over to Mardini.

Mardini, in turn, put in a strong performance resisting pressure from behind to deliver the second Bronze Cup victory of the season for the No. 89 Porsche, following on from a previous win at Zandvoort in May. Unfortunately, the sister No. 80 car of Gabriel Rindone and Ricardo Feller had any hopes of a good result taken away after it was hit by another Bronze Cup competitor, finishing ninth in class.

After the Saturday race took place in the evening, the second contest on Sunday kicked off at a more traditional afternoon slot. This time, it was the No. 80 Porsche GT3 R that was starting up front, with Rindone rolling off from second on the grid after a strong qualifying performance.

Rindone maintained a spot near the podium positions when he pitted to hand over to Feller, but all hopes for a long overdue podium were dashed during the pitstop when a belt got caught in the door, which cost valuable time. This dropped them down the order to eighth.

The sister car, meanwhile, looked to follow up its Saturday victory by scoring another big points haul, which looked to be the case when Buus secured a hard-fought fourth place, just three-tenths of a second behind third. However, a ten-second penalty applied after the race dropped the No. 89 to seventh in class.

Patrick Kolb – Team Principal: “If a year ago someone had told us, that we would be travelling as runner up to the final round of our maiden GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup season, we would have been over the moon. Now the target has changed – with the strong performance over the last rounds our drivers and the team have proven that we have the potential to contend for the championship title. Throughout the summer break we will leave no stone unturned to ensure we will be able to put up a good fight at Valencia.”

Mardini and Buus solidified their second place in the Bronze Cup standings after their Saturday victory. Heading into the season finale, the gap to the leading Ferrari is 6,5 points with a total of 33 points still up for grabs. The deciding round of the Sprint Cup season will take place at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain on September 19-21.