The Brazilian driver Augusto Farfus Jr took the victory yesterday during the FIA GT World Cup event, giving the manufacturers’ title to BMW Schnitzer Team in the process.
Starting from the pole position after winning Saturday’s Qualification Race, the BMW single-car field driver gave no chances to the AMG Mercedes field, even as they did everything possible to challenge the Brazilian’s lead.
This was a particularly emotional victory for the team, as it was the last time that the team was oriented by Charly Lamm, who had previously announced his departure from the team due to retirement.
Farfus dominated from the very start and did not commit any mistakes. It was in the last three laps that the race recorded some of its best moments, with the leading group of four cars including Farfus, the German Maro Engel and the Swiss Edoardo Mortara (in the AMG Mercedes), as well as New Zealand’s Earl Bamber in the Porsche.
With only two laps to go, Engel, while trying to put pressure on Farfus, made a mistake braking for the hairpin turn, contributing to Farfus’ extended lead until the checkered-flag.
This was Farfus’s fourth win in Macau and a special one as he noted, thanking the many years of support from Lamm.
Although there was almost no overtaking over the course of the race, the event was still exhilarating to watch.
After the race, Lamm said emotionally, “It is the last race in my time with Schnitzer. I thank Augusto [Farfus] for performing so well and although there wasn’t any passing, every second [was required] to be spot-on without the slightest mistake,” he said, noting, “It was a very good moment and I had many of them [in my career] but this was one.”
As for Farfus, he said, “I’m a bit speechless. It has been a long year and a difficult one but we made it,” adding, “[I felt] a lot of pressure [from behind] because the guys were fast and today I didn’t manage to make the tires work [as well as] yesterday so I did the whole race on the limit and I even clipped the wall trying to squeeze everything but the car was great and we had a great team thanks to BMW, to Team Schnitzer, to Charly [Lamm] and to my family at home. It is a beautiful way to finish the year. We are World Champions!”
As it had happened during Saturday’s Qualification Race, Robin Frijns was the best of the Audis, finishing fifth, followed by the Audi of Christopher Haase.
Despite the great rivalry existing between the two German manufacturers (BMW and Mercedes-Benz), Lamm was widely congratulated and applauded by rivals on the podium, finishing the FIA World GT Cup in Macau in a spirit of sportsmanship and fair play.
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