- Bashar Mardini, Bastian Buus take third win and fifth podium of the 8 round championship
- Lionspeed GP finishes vice champion in Bronze Cup standings at the end of first Sprint Cup season
- GT World Challenge Europe season to conclude with three-hour Endurance finale in Barcelona
Lionspeed GP wrapped up its highly impressive debut season in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup with a third class victory for Bashar Mardini and Bastian Buus. The pairing put in a valiant effort with their strongest weekend in the series to date, ending second in the drivers’ championship.
The Circuit Ricardo Tormo, located just outside Valencia, was the staging ground for the final round of a hard-fought Sprint Cup season. After previous victories at Zandvoort and Magny-Cours, Mardini and Buus entered the finale with a shot at the championship. With 35 points still up for grabs and just 6.5 points separating the No. 89 Lionspeed Porsche 911 GT3 R from the lead, anything was still possible across the two last 60-minute races.
Both Mardini and Buus, as well as the No. 80 Lionspeed crew of Gabriel Rindone and Ricardo Feller, displayed strong pace across Friday’s opening day of running, with Buus in particular then carrying that form into Saturday in brilliant fashion by qualifying second overall for the opening race of the weekend.
The strong starting position allowed Buus to remain out of trouble as mayhem on the opening lap eliminated multiple cars. Feller, who had qualified sixth, also has a clean start as both Lionspeed Porsches concentrated on the battle out front.
Once the Pro drivers had handed over to their Bronze-rated co-drivers, Mardini and Rindone looked in podium contention until the latter unfortunately spun out, costing him a number of positions. Mardini, brought the No. 89 Porsche home in second in class. Rindone eventually crossed the line sixth in the Bronze Cup category.
On Sunday, the two Porsches qualified sixth and eleventh, respectively, for the deciding race. Mardini, taking the start in the No. 80 Porsche, charged up into second in class in the opening lap before handing over to Buus for the second half of the race. This gave the Danish racer the perfect opportunity to charge into the lead, where he would stay to claim Lionspeed’s third class win of the season.
Rindone and Feller, meanwhile, enjoyed a strong finish to a challenging campaign by coming home in fourth, although again frustratingly just short of the podium they so thoroughly deserved.
Despite claiming the most race wins in this years GTWC Sprint Season with their third class victory Buus and Mardini just fell short of the title, ending the fight just five points off the top spot.
Three wins, two overall front row starts and Vice Championship title are testament to a highly accomplished debut campaign, in the teams only second full season in GTWC Europe.
With the Sprint Cup season wrapped up, the GTWC Endurance calendar features one more race in 2025: the three-hour Endurance Cup finale at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on October 10-12, where the team currently lies in P3 in the Championship standing.
