FIA GT WORLD CUP PRACTICE 2 REPORT – ENGEL’S BEAST BLOWS LAP RECORD AWAY

Inaugural FIA GT World Cup winner Maro Engel (Mercedes ASMG GT3) has blown the Guia Circuit GT lap record away in a dominant last minute display of precision and performance at Macao.

Engel who had struggled in day one practice and had not featured strongly in the majority of today’s session put in two blinding laps in the last five minutes, undercutting the GT lap record on each occasion.

His best time – an incredible 2min17.153secs was a full 1.02seconds faster than Audi’s lead driver, the man they call Mr Macao, Edoarda Motara, who had dominated the majority of the session.

The two Audi R8LMS of Mortara and Laurens Vanthoor established themselves at the top of practice from the outset and held that position right until a red flag for stricken Irish driver Richard Lyons who’s Porsche made light wall contact damaging its front right suspension.

When practice resumed Engel’s Mercedes embarked on what he later termed “ a mega lap”.

“ My team has totally turned the car around since yesterday , “ Engel said.

Engel’s Mercedes carries the hashtag : “The Beast of the Green Hell” in homage to the Nurburgring and when he unleashed the beast there was no stopping it.

On his first flying lap he recorded a 2min17.728sec; lap, well under the lap record of 2min 18.930, a time already undercut by the Audis.

Then on his next lap he took more off it again, setting up major anticipation for this afternoon’s qualifying for the FIA GT World Cup.

Six drivers representing the works teams of Mercedes AMG, Audi and Porsche are all under the circuit lap record.

POS NO CLS DRIVER / TEAM NAT CAR TIME ON LAPS GAP DIFF KM /H
1 1 M Maro Engel DEU Mercedes AMG GT3 2:17.153 11 11 160.64
Mercedes-AMG Driv ing Academy
2 7 M Edoardo Mortara ITA Audi R8 LMS 2:18.175 11 12 1.022 1.022 159.45
Audi Sport Team WRT
3 911 M Earl Bam ber NZL Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:18.201 10 10 1.048 0.026 159.42
Manthey Racing
4 8 M Laurens Vanthoor BEL Audi R8 LMS 2:18.356 6 11 1.203 0.155 159.24
Audi Sport Team WRT
5 912 M Kévin Estre FRA Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:18.728 6 12 1.575 0.372 158.81
Manthey Racing
6 15 Nico Müller CHE Audi R8 LMS 2:18.815 6 12 1.662 0.087 158.71
Phoenix Racing Asia
7 11 CHENG Congfu CHN Audi R8 LMS 2:19.397 12 12 2.244 0.582 158.05
Absolute Racing
8 2 M Renger Van Der Zande NLD Mercedes AMG GT3 2:19.787 7 12 2.634 0.390 157.61
Mercedes-AMG Driv ing Academy
9 10 Adderly Fong HKG Bentley Continental GT3 2:20.233 12 12 3.080 0.446 157.11
Bentley Team Absolute
10 9 Nicky Catsburg NLD BMW F13 M6 GT3 2:21.182 13 13 4.029 0.949 156.05
Rowe Racing
11 28 Fabian Plentz DEU Audi R8 LMS 2:21.221 6 11 4.068 0.039 156.01
Team HCB-Rutronik-Racing
12 50 Pasin Lathouras THA Ferrari 488 GT3 2:21.512 9 12 4.359 0.291 155.69
Spirit of Race SA
13 16 LEE Marchy HKG Audi R8 LMS 2:21.683 11 11 4.530 0.171 155.50
Audi Hong Kong
14 88 Richard Lyons GBR Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:21.745 4 7 4.592 0.062 155.43
Craft Bamboo Racing
15 5 M Mirko Bortolotti ITA Lam borghini Huracán GT3 2:21.972 5 6 4.819 0.227 155.19
FFF Racing
16 55 M André Couto MAC Lam borghini Huracán GT3 2:22.285 11 11 5.132 0.313 154.84
FFF Racing
17 99 Darryl O’Young HKG Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:22.399 3 4 5.246 0.114 154.72
Craft Bamboo Racing
18 89 Hiroki Yoshimoto JPN Ferrari 488 GT3 2:22.951 6 10 5.798 0.552 154.12
HubAuto Racing
19 17 Ricky Capo AUS BMW Z4 2:24.762 9 11 7.609 1.811 152.19
Modena Engineering
20 98 MA Ching Yeung Philip HKG Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:29.003 7 11 11.850 4.241 147.86
GruppeM Racing
21 68 John Shen CAN Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:33.017 11 11 15.864 4.014 143.98
Modena Motorsports
22 29 Tommy Tulpe DEU Audi R8 LMS 2:37.147 7 11 19.994 4.130 140.20
Team HCB-Rutronik-Racing
23 22 KUO Ku o Hsin T PE Mercedes AMG GT3 4 0.00

Source. FIA