The Verstappen.com AMR nearly clinch the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Gold crown in Germany (UPDATED)
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Despite taking the chequered flag in yesterdays race first within their gold class, the #33 Verstappen.com 2 Seas Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Chris Lulham, Thierry Vermuelin and Harry King received a post race ten second time penalty for earlier contact which has dropped them down to third within the race results. That penalty keeps alive the class battle into the final round in Span later next month.
Having been so dominantly consistent with their class over the 2025 season so far, the #33 Red Bull sponsored Aston Martin came from fifth in class at the start to today’s three hour penultimate round to the season in Germany to make use of a Full Course Yellow and Safety Car restart to end the day on the top step of their class podium to win that class outright with one round still remaining.
There were high hopes for the Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi and Marco Sorensen going into this round after they qualified in fourth after the initial pole setting BMW was penalised for contact with another car during the days earlier qualifying sessions.
Despite the cooler and overcast conditions, the race was run in essentially dry conditions after rain earlier in the race weekend with Thiim initially dropping down the order ion the opening laps after a ‘round the outside’ plan of attack into turn one backfired for the Dane.
Recovering from that early error, however, the #7 car would hold station within the top five throughout most of his stint before pitting earlier than most to hand the car over to Drudi. That difference in strategy allowed the Italian to quickly catch and pass the Rowe Racing BMW for the race lead which the #7 would then hold onto until what appeared to be a routine third stop and full service, allowing Sorensen to take the car to the flag.
The same FCY/Safety Car intervention for a multiple car incident at turn eight which favoured the #33 Verstappen AMR did the complete opposite to the #7 cars programme after they had pitted at full race pace only for their immediate Pro class competitors to be allowed their own final stop at Safety car speed. That time difference alone dropped the #7 car from what was the race lead and down to P8 in class by the time the third pit stop cycle had been completed. The #7 crew would eventually finish sixth.
The Nurburgring was also not the day for the remaining four Aston Martin Racing powered crews after the silver classed #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry of Mateo Villagomez, Romain Leroux and Oliver Soderstrom dropped a lap in the opening minutes after (presumed) contact with others on lap one whilst the similar classed #21 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Kobe Pauwel and Jamie Day dropped from their P3 qualifying position to end the day P7 in class.
The #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry of David Pittard, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves maintained a disappointing weekend at the office for them converting their P12 qualifying position into a P12 finish in class whilst the #270 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry of Jessica Hawkins, Antoine Potty and Alexandre Leroy at least saw an improvement by finishing the weekend from their P16 class start into a P13 finish.
With the Gold class already sorted, the final round of the season from Barcelona in mid-October will become something of a non-event as no other AMR powered crew can win anything more than the race or their class by the end of that final three hours of racing.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
