Weekend Recap: Winners and Champions at Indianapolis, Hockenheim
Results from joint IGTC/GTWC America Indianapolis 8 Hour, DTM finale...
Craft-Bamboo Wins Indy 8H; Mercedes Clinches IGTC Title
Craft-Bamboo Racing has claimed a breakthrough victory in Saturday’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS, with Raffaele Marciello coming out on top of AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco in a hard-fought duel.
Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, clinched the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli manufacturers’ title with one race to spare in the globe-trotting GT3 series.
Marciello drove his No. 77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a narrow 0.8-second win over Fuoco’s No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 following a series of exchanges for the lead in the closing hours.
Having started from 18th on the grid, Daniel Serra charged to second in his opening stint, with Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Silver Cup champion Ulysse De Pauw taking over the lead following the first round of stops.
However, a drive-through penalty for spinning the sister No. 51 Ferrari of Pierre Ragues in the fourth hour took De Pauw out of the lead and put Dani Juncadella in control until the race’s first of two full course cautions that erased the Ferrari’s 20-second deficit.
While on split strategies due to the No. 71’s earlier penalty, the two cars went back onto the equal footing during the second yellow, with Fuoco making a move around Marciello through traffic with 1 hour and 58 minutes to retake the lead.
Marciello, however, got back by the Ferrari some 30 minutes later but came under attack from Fuoco through Pro-Am class traffic in the closing minutes of the race.
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Van der Linde Crowned DTM Champion
Marco Wittmann won the final DTM race of the season at Hockenheim, while Sheldon van der Linde came home in third to secure the drivers’ championship.
Wittmann’s No. 10 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 took victory by a 4.425-second margin over the No. 33 Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Rene Rast.
Rast, driving his final race for Audi in DTM, started the race from pole with an outside shot at the title, but lost the lead on the opening lap as Wittmann swept by him into Turn 1.
The two drivers battled again after their mandatory pitstops, with Rast fighting his way past Wittmann at Turn 11 after a contact-heavy battle.
Rast then ran wide out of Turn 4 not much later, allowing Wittmann to retake the lead and would remain there to take his 18th victory in the series.
Sheldon van der Linde converted sixth on the grid to a third-placed finish with a controlling performance, securing the championship in the process.
It is the first DTM title for Van der Linde, who becomes the first South African DTM champion in the process.
His main challenger, Lucas Auer, started eleventh after a difficult qualifying session. The Austrian made strong progress in the opening exchanges, but ran out of steam in the second half of the race.
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