The #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi gave it their best shot at this weekend’s penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series but even their maximum points wasn’t enough to take the championship battle into the final round.
Racing as one of three AMR powered entries at this weekend’s visit to the Nurburgring alongside the two similar powered entries from the Walkenhorst Motorsport team, the #007 already needed something of a minor miracle over the #48 Mercedes powered crew in order to take the fight to the final round in Portimao in mid-October.
Despite some very wet practice sessions on Saturday, the three qualifying sessions were at least run on an albeit green but more importantly a dry track. At the end of this morning’s runs, the #007 had claimed another pole position for their efforts whilst the #34 Pro class Walkenhorst effort of Jamie Day, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P14 overall – P10 in class.
The two silver classed entries of the #21 Comtoyou Racing entries of Oliver Soderstrom, Sebastian Baud and Kobe Pauwels hadn’t fared as well as previous rounds as they would start P28 overall /P5 in class whilst their rival #35 Walkenhorst entry of Mateo Vilagomez, Gaspard Simon and Ethan Ischer were further back in P44 overall/P13 in class. With the omission of the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn AMR this time around, that left the #11 Comtoyou Racing car of Marcelo Tomasoni, Aaron Muss and a guesting Sergio Sette Camara the final car of the quintet as they again qualified their bronze class entry P11 in class towards the rear of the pack.
Getting underway for this three-hour race saw Sorensen having to battle hard for the opening laps in order to maintain his position at the head of the race whilst those within the mid to rear of the pack had to put up with three cars being spun around in front of them as they all hit turn one for the first time. Whilst the #007 was at the head of the pack, the remaining for Vantage GT3’s were all within the second half of the pack.
Forty-five minutes in and the leaders were lapping the tail end bronze entries for the first time as Day remained P16 overall within his #34 car as thoughts started to look towards the first of the two expected stops but just ahead of the first hour – a car within the gravel brought out the first FCY.
During the stops, Sorensen handed over to Drudi with the championship challenging #48 car still doing what they needed in order to secure the overall championship a round early with all the other runners following suite as and when they arrived at pit in.
Strating the second hour, the #007 again lead the field with the #34 car still P14 overall but with Krognes now at the wheel as the #21 Comtoyou was also making progress before the Safety Car was called out again after two cars tangled and ended within the gravel. Whilst the race did briefly get back going, a slowing car on track eventually brought that inevitable contact from another bringing out another FCY.
Going into the final hour, the #007 lost initial ground to those around it as Thiim took the helm and going into the final half hour was running down in fourth as Chaves now in the Walkenhorst also struggled for pace and dropped places relative to where he inherited the car. Going into the final ten minutes of the race, however, Thiim was then up to third overall before a final lap passing of the leading Porsche (who had already been pinged for exceeding maximum drive time and hence would be penalised) saw the #007 pass for the lead again to complete a near lights to flag win for the Belgian team again.
Unfortunately for all, the #48 Mercedes also finished fourth on track to claim the overall Drivers Championship title before the long trip down to Portugal.
The #34 Walkenhorst crew eventually finished P16 overall / P11 in class with its sister #35 car P41 overall / P10 in silver. The #21 Comtoyou AMR did rally in the second half of the race to finish P24 overall / P5 in class whilst the #11 bronze class crew ended up with their best result to date P45 overall / P10 in class.
The final round of the season will be from Portimao 16-18th October 2026.
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