The 69th Macau Grand Prix GT Cup: A Bitter Sweet Feeling | Asia Motorsports Network – Renato Marques
German driver Maro Engel (Craft-Bamboo Racing) extended his list of triumphs in Macau this year by winning both races of the Macau GT Cup.
Despite this impressive outcome, Engel’s wins have somehow left a bittersweet flavor as accidents marred both races, disrupting their normal course.
The final and main race of the weekend (Race 2) saw its total number of competition laps severely reduced, with most of the laps occurring in slow-driving mode behind the safety car due to the stopping on the track of the BMW M6 GT3 of Kelvin Leong on the “Solitude Esses.”
This incident took place mid-Lap 2 and until the end of Lap 6, leaving just two laps to race until the end.
At the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, Engel also benefited from a strange incident that occurred during Race 1 on Saturday. Polesitter Edoardo Mortara in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II suddenly jumped from the grid and inadvertently followed the safety car when the red lights were still showing to the drivers.
The incident delayed the start for five minutes. Mortara received a penalty that forced him to remain still in the grid while the whole field moved forward to the formation lap.
Starting from the last position, Mortara benefited a little from another incident involving four cars on turn 1 that forced the race to stop and ruled out four competitors including Hong Kong’s Darryl O’Young (2021 winner), Adderly Fong, Cheng Cong Fu, and Min Heng.
The incident enabled Mortara to start a recovery that took him to fourth position.
After a lengthy delay, the race restarted behind the safety car, and Engel and fellow Mercedes driver Raffaele Marciello sprinted away.
Mortara still attacked Ling Kang in the third position in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo, but Ling defended his position well.
In Sunday’s Race 2, Marciello was the quickest at the greenlight and jumped ahead of Engel, but eventually ended his race prematurely, going off track at the hairpin bend a few seconds before the incident with Leong on another part of the track. This paved the way for Engel to win this race without a challenge.
Mortara eventually finished second in Race 2, while the third spot on the podium went to Alexandre Imperatori in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
With this victory, Engel becomes a three-time Macau GT Cup winner, alongside his wins back in 2014 and 2015.
At the end of the race, Engel shared his thoughts on the race and the win saying, “It feels amazing to get another main race win. We came close on many occasions throughout the years but never quite got it done. To do it with Craft-Bamboo Racing, which is Hong Kong-based, is amazing,” adding, “It is still challenging times at the moment, so I want to say thanks to all the people who are not here, who were helping us remotely. Both engineering-wise at Craft-Bamboo and Mercedes AMG back in Affalterbach. A big thank you to them. They were waking up at crazy times to join the debriefs and help us this weekend.”
