Raffaele Marciello was the winner of the FIA GT World Cup, which took place in Macau this weekend. It was a dominant performance by the Italian, in this year of the return of international drivers to the Guia Circuit after the absence from 2020 to 2022 due to the pandemic.
The pole position was held by Marciello (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf), who capitalized on the grid position to stay ahead of the pack. Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing) was his main pursuer, also resisting the pressure from Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute).
While Marciello established himself as the leader, the remaining podium positions witnessed an interesting duel, in which Sheldon van der Linde (Team WRT/BMW) was also involved. A safety car was needed on the seventh lap, due to the crash of David Chen Weian (Harmony Racing/Ferrari) at Lisboa Corner.
At the restart, Marciello reacted well to maintain the lead. Later, Engel retired with a car breakdown, which made Marciello even more comfortable. Mortara and van der Linde moved up to second and third, respectively. However, the South African suffered a puncture, which promoted Augusto Farfus (ROWE Racing/BMW) to third. The podium positions remained unchanged until the end of the 16 laps, with Marciello winning by 2.519s ahead of Mortara and Farfus in third by 4.295s.
Daniel Serra (Harmnoy Racing/Ferrari) and Daniel Juncadella (Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing) completed the top five. The champion of this year’s DTM, one of the main GT3 championships of today, was present: Thomas Preining (HubAuto Racing/Porsche) could not, however, get involved in the fight for the top positions, finishing in 15th.
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