Maro Engel clinched his second career victory in the FIA GT World Cup after an intensely close contest on the treacherously wet Guia Circuit, capitalizing on errors by Antonio Fuoco and Raffaele Marciello in the final moments of the Macau GT Cup race.
Nine years after his inaugural win in 2015, the German driver added another triumph to his record, marking Mercedes-AMG’s third consecutive victory in the world’s most prestigious GT3 sprint race. This success follows in the footsteps of the manufacturer’s recent wins, achieved by Raffaele Marciello, now at BMW.
The race commenced with the first four laps under safety car conditions due to the wet track, allowing only 12 racing laps for the 22 competitors to vie for the 2024 FIA GT World Cup title.
Initially, the Swiss-flagged driver, Raffaele Marciello, led the pack but was soon overtaken by Antonio Fuoco in the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 on Lap 8. Shortly after, Dries Vanthoor crashed out, which elevated Engel to third position. Engel, however, was later issued a five-second post-race penalty for causing this incident.
The race’s climax came with three cars in a tight-knit battle for the lead. Fuoco attempted a bold move on Marciello with just two laps remaining, briefly seizing the lead, but both ended up in the run-off area at Lisboa corner, thus handing victory to Engel.
The German racer finished with a comfortable lead over Augusto Farfus in the Team KRC BMW, who, despite not being in the win contention, displayed formidable speed throughout the weekend.
Former DTM champion Sheldon van der Linde rounded out the podium for Team WRT BMW, finishing ahead of the Absolute Racing Porsches driven by Alessio Picariello and Laurens Vanthoor.
