France beats Germany to gold in GT Cup as UK wins first medal

Having won both qualifying races, Germany lost the lead at the start of the 60-minute main event to France’s Simon Gachet, who built almost a 30-second advantage before handing over to Eric Debard at the mandatory pitstop, where slight repairs were made to the front splitter of their Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Germany’s Valentin Pierburg slipped back to sixth after a four-way scrap with Evan Chen (Chinese Taipei), Ivan Pelkin (Ukraine) and Bruno Baptista (Brazil), the latter then putting Pelkin into a spin at the chicane.

An early stop during the pit window allowed Fabian Schiller to move into second after jumping aboard for Germany, and he quickly started to reel in Debard.

A battle for victory had looked likely in the final minutes, but Schiller’s charge was halted by a late incident for Chinese Taipei’s Max Chen, who retired after a collision with Hong Kong China’s Honda NSX. That resulted in the race finishing behind the safety car, allowing France to hold on.

The UK’s journey to the bronze medal was made more challenging by a late driver change on Thursday night after Chris Froggart withdrew due to illness.

Sam Neary was drafted in to partner newly-crowned British GT champion Ian Loggie, only arriving in time for free practice two on Friday afternoon having never raced at Paul Ricard before.

The pair lined up fourth on the grid for the main event, with Loggie dropping back to sixth in the opening stint. But having made up ground during the pitstop, Neary took over in fourth before snatching third from Chinese Taipei to complete a clean-sweep of the podium positions for Mercedes-AMG machinery.

Karol Basz climbed up the order for Team Poland in the final stint to finish fourth, while Brazil was handed a time penalty for its early incident with Ukraine, with both squads finishing down the order.