BLANCPAIN SPRINT CUP HUNGARORING (H) AUGUST 26-27 ROUND 4/5
IT’S BEEN A WHILE, BUT MARCEL FASSLER has got that winning feeling once again. After he had a winless campaign in Audi’s final season in the World Endurance Championship, you had to go back to the Sebring 12 Hours – in a Chevrolet Corvette – last March for the Swiss driver’s last victory and then look even further back – to Bucharest 2008 in FIA GT – for his most recent triumph at an SRO-sanctioned event.
But Fassler ended that drought with aplomb at the Hungaroring last weekend, following up a comfortable lights-to-flag win in the qualifying race with his first Blancpain Sprint Cup victory in the main event, putting himself and WRT team-mate Dries Vanthoor firmly in the running for the title with just one round of the series left.
In truth, that first win owed much to the stunning performance of Vanthoor, who is starting to emerge from the shadow of elder brother Laurens as a seriously quick driver in his own right, and led JMW Motorsport to GTE-Am honours at Le Mans.
After being fastest out of the traps in both Friday practice sessions at this most Audi friendly of circuits, the 19-year-old laid the foundations for a weekend of dominance with his first series pole – almost two tenths ahead of Mirko Bortolotti’s Grasser Lamborghini. Remarkably, Vanthoor had only cracked Q3 once before this season, with 12th in the Misano curtain-raiser his previous best result.
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