2015 FIA GT World Cup


The 2015 FIA GT World Cup was the inaugural running of the event and the eighth time overall that Grand Touring machinery competed in the autonomous territory of Macau. It was held in the streets of the city on 22 November and was contested as a non-championship race as part of the GT Asia Series in GT3-specification cars. The event promoter, the Automobile General Association Macau-China, appointed the Stéphane Ratel Organisation to help bring a grid together. The race itself was made up of two races: a 12-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the 14-lap main race.
The main race was won by Mercedes AMG Driving Academy driver Maro Engel from pole position, having won the Qualification Race the previous afternoon after the on the road victor Edoardo Mortara was penalised ten seconds for brake testing him. Mortara accelerated faster than Engel at the rolling start before he lost the lead back to the former soon later. Engel then led for the rest of the race which ended two laps early due to a multi-car accident behind the safety car and the result was counted back two laps. Second place went to the highest-placed Audi R8 LMS of René Rast, while the podium was completed by Stefan Mücke in the Craft-Bamboo Racing entered Aston Martin Vantage V12.

Entry list and rules

In order to compete in the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile -regulated championship based on GT3 regulations. On 11 September 2015, Audi, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, McLaren and Porsche were announced as the five manufacturers that had been accepted to partake in the event and was open to any model of car meeting GT3 rules. Manufacturers were permitted to enter up to three drivers through privateer teams, and the teams that represented the manufacturers were allowed to field both gold and platinum ranked drivers; bronze and silver rated entrants were eligible on a case by case basis at the discretion of the FIA GT World Cup Committee. The entry list for the FIA GT World Cup was released on 7 October 2015. 22 drivers were featured in the initial list of entries which included 2014 Macau GT Cup race winner Maro Engel, two-time Macau Grand Prix victor Edoardo Mortara and the 24 Hours of Le Mans co-winner Earl Bamber. World Endurance Championship competitor René Rast was called up to drive for Audi as a late replacement for Laurens Vanthoor who withdrew from the race on doctor's orders after injuring his hip at the Blancpain Sprint Series round at the Misano World Circuit.

Background

The 2015 FIA GT World Cup was the inaugural running of the event and the eighth time that Grand Touring cars had competed in Macau. It took place at the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 22 November 2015 with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. The motorsport promoter Stéphane Ratel Organisation chose not to renew its contract with the FIA two years prior to the 2015 FIA GT World Cup and the idea for the creation of a race for the best teams and drivers participating was proposed by the founder of the SRO Stéphane Ratel in early 2013. These plans laid dormant for some time until an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha saw the idea reemerge and was later confirmed by the sport's governing body on 20 March 2015. It was the first collaboration between Ratel and the FIA since the FIA GT1 World Championship disbanded. The FIA GT World Cup was granted its status after the World Touring Car Championship confirmed that it would stop travelling to Macau, and it replaced the Baku World Challenge which was discontinued that year when Formula One announced it would hold a race in the city from 2016. The promoter of the race, the Automobile General Association Macao-China, appointed the SRO to help in the formation of a grid.

Practice and qualifying

Two 30-minute practice sessions were held before the race on Sunday: one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday morning. Renger van der Zande set the fastest lap for the Mercedes AMG Driving Academy SLS GT3 in the opening practice session with a time of 2 minutes, 20.796 seconds, two-tenths of a second faster than any one else. His closest challenger was his teammate Engel in second. Mortara in the sole Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8 LMS entry was third. The highest placed Aston Martin V12 Vantage of Darryl O'Young was fourth. Bamber was the fastest Porsche competitor in fifth. Stefan Mücke, André Couto, Keita Sawa, Rast and Richard Lyons occupied positions six to ten. In the second practice session, Engel led the time sheets for most of the session until Mücke eclipsed him with a time of 2 minutes, 20.082 seconds, the fastest lap of the weekend at that point. Van Der Zande was 0.021 seconds slower in second position with Adderly Fong third. Engel ended the session in fourth place and Bamber repeated his first practice session result in fifth. O'Young, Mortara, Álvaro Parente and his teammate Kévin Estre and Rast made up positions six to ten.
Friday afternoon's qualifying session lasted half an hour. The session was used to determine the starting order for the qualification race through the competitor's fastest lap times. Engel was the early pace setter before he hit an inside kerbstone at Mandarin corner, which rendered him unable to control his car and drifted into a barrier, prompting the first of three stoppages in qualifying. Engel later admitted he was at fault for the crash and apologised to his team. The session later restarted before it was red-flagged for a second time when Van Der Zande crashed into a wall at Paiol turn. The barriers were repaired during the stoppage. With less than twelve minutes left. Audi implemented a strategy to allow Mortara to drive in clear air for an attempt at pole position. This plan was halted when Cuoto experienced oversteer and heavily damaged his car in an impact at Mandarin corner and ricocheted between the barriers. Cuoto was unhurt and his crash caused the session's third and final stoppage. Mortara began setting quick sector times when the session restarted with six minutes to go to place himself on provisional pole before Mücke took the position with a lap of 2 minutes, 18.032 seconds. Mücke was joined on the grid's front row by Mortara. Engel's accident restricted him to third. Rast was fourth, Van Der Zande fifth and O'Young sixth. O'Young's teammate Lyons placed seventh. Bamber, Fong and Parente took eighth to tenth positions. Estre was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten. Following him were his teammate Cuoto, Sawa, Marchy Lee, the Thai duo of Pasin Lathouras and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, Dylan Derdaele, Jeffrey Lee, Weng Sun Mok and Philip Ma. John Shen and Jacky Yeung completed the 22 qualifiers.

Qualifying classification

Qualifying race

The qualifying race to set the grid order for the main race started at 12:15 Macau Standard Time. The weather at the start was dry and cloudy with the air temperature and the track temperature. At the start, Mücke blocked an overtake from Mortara to maintain his pole position advantage heading into Mandarin turn before Engel used his straightline speed to pass Mortara for second position as the field drove towards Lisboa corner. Rast fell to fifth as his brandmate Marchy Lee gained a further position before he could steer into Lisboa corner. Despite matching his pace earlier in the race, Engel could not challenge Mücke as the leader controlled how fast he was going; both men pulled clear from the trailing Mortara and Van Der Zande, Fong lost control of his Bentley Continental GT and crashed heavily at the Solitude Esses on the third lap. The safety car was deployed on the following lap to neutralise the order since his car was stranded in the centre of the track.
Mücke got away cleanly to lead the field back up to speed at the lap eight restart with Engel and Mortara following close behind. At the same time, fourth-placed Van Der Zande unsuccessfully attempted to move up the order. Engel had to take avoiding action when Mücke accelerated and then braked sharply. Engel later expressed his surprise at Mücke's action after the race. The leaders could not make any more manoeuvres from thereon and the gaps at the front steadily increased until the conclusion of the qualifying race. Mücke maintained the lead for the rest of the race and was the first driver to finish. However, he was later deemed to have brake tested Engel per the regulations and incurred a ten-second time penalty. Engel was promoted to the victory and took pole position for the main race. He was joined on the grid's front row by Mortara. Mücke's penalty put him third. Behind the two, Van Der Zande followed in fourth, Rast fifth and Lyons sixth. Behind the trio a close group consisting of Bamber, O'Young, Parente and Estre rounded out the top ten. Outside the top ten, Sawa, Marchy Lee, Lathouras, Inthraphuvasak, Derdaele, Jeffrey Lee, Sun Mok, Sheng, Yeng, Cuoto and Ma completed the 21 classified finishers.

Qualifying race classification

Main race

The race began at 12:55 local time. The weather at the start was dry and sunny with an air temperature of and a track temperature at. Fong withdrew from the race because his chassis was too damaged from his qualifying race crash the previous day. When the race began from its rolling start, Mortara made a fast getaway and blocked an initial pass from Engel to move into the lea before the Mandarin Oriental bend. On the approach to the Reservoir Kink corner Engel steered onto the inside and retook the lead from Mortara. His teammate van der Zande took second place moments later after making a brisk start. Mücke then took third from Mortara before Lisboa corner. At the corner, Estre went into the rear of Lyon and both drivers retired. Bamber joined the list of retirees on the lap after he clattered a barrier at San Francisco Bend. At the end of the first lap, Engel led teammate Van der Zande, with the duo followed in turn by, Mortara, Mücke, Parente, O'Young, Sawa, Marchy Lee and Lathouras. The first five were covered by five seconds and extended their advantage over the rest of the field to 18 seconds.
At the race's midpoint, Derdaele's car sustained a punctured tyre and went straight on at Lisboa corner to retire while Parente lost sixth place to O'Young who passed him by getting a better exit leaving a turn. Meanwhile, Engel opened up a healthy advantage over the second-placed Van Der Zande when the complexion of the event changed on lap 12. Van Der Zande was delayed by traffic and this allowed Mücke to challenge him for second position going into Lisboa corner. The resulting manoeuvre saw Mücke ram into the rear of Van der Zande's car and debris from the latter's car lodged onto Mücke's left-rear wheel. On the next lap, Mücke drew alongside on the inside of Van Der Zande driving towards Lisboa corner and the two made contact. Both drivers ran wide under braking and allowed the Audi duo of Rast and Mortara to take second and third places. At this point in the race, Engel led Mortara by eight seconds until that was reduced to nothing when the safety car was deployed to close up the field because of an accident on lap 14. Inthraphuvasak crashed at Paiol corner and his vehicle was stranded at the centre of the track.
As everyone circulated behind the safety car with the anticipation of getting more laps at racing speed, a multi-car accident occurred at Moorish Hill with 2½ laps to go. The lapped Shen went into the tyre barrier and every driver behind him all ran into each other since he blocked the track. The race was immediately red flagged; race control elected not to restart and counted back the result by two laps. This made Engel the inaugural FIA GT World Cup victor and took a second successive win in Macau after he won the 2014 GT event. Mortara took second before a 20-second time penalty was imposed on him per the International Sporting Code because he was deemed to have jumped the start. This promoted Rast and Mucke to second and third in the final results. Off the podium, Van Der Zande, O'Young, Mortara, Parente, Marchy Lee, Sawa and Lathouras, Couto, Jeffrey Lee, Sun, Shen, Ma, Yueng and Inthraphuvasak were the final finishers.

Main race classification

;Notes:

FIA GT World Cup for Manufacturers

The award for the FIA GT World Cup for Manufacturers was presented to the manufacturer supplying the cars with a manufacturer entry with the highest number of points after addition of the points of its two best cars awarded according to the result of the Main Race.

Scoring system

Entries were required to complete 90 per cent of the winning car's race distance in order to be classified and earn points. There were no points awarded for the Pole Position.

Main Race points

; Notes