Rutronik Racing won the Bronze Cup in the three-hour GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup race in Monza.

The second race weekend of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup took place on the high-speed circuit in Monza, northern Italy. Over 40,000 spectators flocked to the event in the royal park of Monza. Rutronik Racing fielded two Porsche 911 GT3 R and was aiming to continue its successful run from the first races of the season.

Antares Au and Loek Hartog took to the start in the team's Bronze Cup car. The duo started the race from 41st on the grid but put in a spectacular comeback drive. Thanks to good and fast driving, a perfect strategy and a flawless performance, the blue Porsche quickly fought its way up through the field. The two drivers kept the car out of all incidents – the three-hour race had to be neutralised a total of eight times. In the end, the two drivers were classified in tenth place, which is equivalent to class victory in the Bronze Cup.

Particularly noteworthy in the heat battle at Monza – the thermometer climbed to temperatures around 30°C, while the asphalt heated up to 55°C – is that Au and Hartog were the only two drivers in the field to contest the race as a duo. Porsche contracted driver Morris Schuring, who normally starts with the two drivers, had to compete for another Porsche team in Monza due to scheduling conflicts.

After three podium finishes on the first three weekends and the Sprint Cup victory in Zandvoort, Sven Müller, Patric Niederhauser and Endurance Cup driver Alessio Picariello travelled to Monza in confident mood. However, the trio experienced a weekend to forget. In pre-qualifying on Saturday afternoon, the car did not complete a single lap after a power steering failure, which meant the team lost valuable track time. With this disadvantage, the three official Porsche drivers qualified in 27th place on Sunday morning.

In addition, the car suffered gearbox damage in qualifying, leaving the Rutronik Racing mechanics with a lot of work to do before the start of the race. However, thanks to a good performance by all the mechanics, the car was able to start the race. During the race, the Porsche was also given a drive-through penalty because Sven Müller was involved in a collision with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the early stages, which the stewards deemed to have been caused by him. Despite good speed, the drivers were unable to make up much ground as the race was disrupted by numerous neutralisations, leaving the Rutronik Racing trio with little opportunity to make up time. The driver trio was ultimately classified in 21st place and was therefore unable to score any points.

In the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS overall standings, Müller and Niederhauser now occupy third place overall after four of ten race weekends. In the Endurance Cup standings, the Porsche trio slipped back to fifth place after failing to score any points at Monza. Thanks to their class victory in Italy, Antares Au and Loek Hartog fought their way up to fourth place in the Bronze Cup standings of the Endurance Cup and are now only six points behind the leaders in the sub-classification.

The GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS will continue on the last weekend in June. The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, the world's largest GT race, is the absolute highlight of the season. 76 GT3 cars are on the provisional entry list. Rutronik Racing was already able to gain valuable experience in the prologue.

Klaus Graf, Team Principal Rutronik Racing: "For us, the weekend was a rollercoaster ride of emotions. In motorsport, you see particularly clearly how close victory and defeat are. We definitely experienced that this weekend. On the positive side, we are extremely happy about the first victory of our bronze car this year. Antares and Loek did a great job and the team also got everything right strategically. The fact that we are so far ahead in the overall standings with the car shows that we executed everything perfectly as a team. For us, this is also a very good basis for the big race in a few weeks. On the other hand, we are naturally a little disappointed with our Pro car. Unfortunately, we had some bad luck this weekend. It started with a technical defect in pre-qualifying, which meant we missed an entire session.

This resulted in a slightly worse starting position. In qualifying, we unfortunately suffered gearbox damage, and our crew did a great job getting the car ready so that we could start from the grid. Compliments to the entire team – both crews did an excellent job throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, the race didn't help either. We received a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, and they are relatively strict in the GT World Challenge Europe when a Pro car touches a car from another class. That was basically the deciding factor. The pace was very good, which is the positive thing for me. From that perspective, we are very optimistic for the upcoming races."

Patric Niederhauser, driver of the Porsche 911 GT3 R #96: "Monza was a really tough weekend for us. Qualifying was extremely difficult and starting from 27th on the grid, we didn't have a good starting position for the race. We obviously had to take some risks, which led to contact and a penalty. A neutralisation at the wrong time then set us back even further. It was a shame that so much went against us in the race because the car was very fast. Not taking any points from Monza is a tough blow, but we will come back stronger in Spa.‘

Loek Hartog, driver of the Porsche 911 GT3 R #97: ’I am over the moon with the victory here in Monza – this is a big moment for us in the Bronze Cup. All credit goes to the engineers for their perfect strategy, which really put us in the race. To be honest, we could have even fought for a better overall position, but we drove cleanly, took minimal risks and brought the car home with a 15-second lead in our class – and that was the most important thing today. This result is exactly what we needed. Now we are firmly in the fight for the championship and perfectly positioned for an exciting and exhausting June for Antares, myself and the entire team."