Ferrari’s Fuoco wins first GT World Cup

Antonio Fuoco secured Ferrari’s first win in the FIA GT World Cup, following his Qualification Race victory on Saturday.

Fuoco was once again unbeatable behind the wheel of AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 GT3 and, building on the improvements seen last year, won comfortably with almost a 4-second lead over Raffaele Marciello (BMW M4 GT3 Evo).

Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 911 GT3 R) completed the podium, having shown potential throughout the weekend on multiple occasions but never quite reaching the top spot.

The top four were almost occupied by four cars from four different makes, but this did not happen as Joel Eriksson (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2) received a 10-second penalty post-race due to an incident at Turn 3, which demoted him to fifth behind the other Ferrari 296 GT3 of Yi Yifei.

The race started with Alessio Picariello spinning his Porsche 911 GT3 R at the exit of the Reservoir Bend. Unlike the event on the first day, when his teammate Lauren Vanthoor wrecked the Porsche, Picariello avoided serious consequences this time.

The luck seems not to be with the Porsches, as not far later, Ayhancan Güven, in another 911 GT3 R, crashed into the barriers at Lisboa Bend after a contact mid-turn with Heinrich.

Unable to avoid the incident, Luca Engstler (Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2) hit Güven from the back, and Dorian Boccolaci in another 911 GT3 R, making it three in a row and prompting the safety car into the track.

As the race resumed on lap four, Fuoco did not drop his concentration and kept the pace high enough to keep everyone at bay.

Unlucky was also Edoardo Mortara (Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2), who was forced to retire at the hairpin as his car completely shut down during braking into the tight section.

At the end of the race, Fuoco expressed all his joy for the result achieved, “We can never ask for something better than this, and I’m just so happy for me, for the team, and everyone, we really deserved this. It has been a really intensive season, but this is something we’ll remember for many years. I think it’s really special to win Macau, especially after last year, so we came back this year with one goal. We did an amazing job throughout the weekend. I want to thank the entire team, as they worked extremely hard to prepare for this weekend’s race. This victory is for all of them. I think we really deserve it after last year. I’m happy and proud to be here today.”