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PRESS RELEASE: 4th September 2022

Both cars in the points at Hockenheim

Fanatec GT World Challenge Eudurance by AWS - Round 4, Hockenheim

After the trials and tribulations of the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa VSR reverted to three driver line-ups for the Hockenheim round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Endurance by AWS. The teams two Silver Cup cars were driven by Dörrbecker, Moulin and Paverud (car number 163) and Beretta, Hites and Nemoto (car number 563).

Saturday mornings free practice session was a wash out after heavy rain soaked the circuit leaving the drivers with limited useful running before heading into pre-qualifying later in the day. Qualifying took place on Sunday morning and the three sessions were insanely close with just one tenth covering fifteen cars in the midfield at the end of Q3. Traffic was a big issue for all the drivers and the VSR cars lined up with car 563 on row fourteen and car 163 on row twenty.

Beretta and Moulin took the start of the three hour race. Both made up a handful of places when the lights went green but the race was put under Safety Car half a lap later for a violent crash involving the Jota McLaren. The restart was then delayed when the Safety Car suffered an incident and the race finally got properly underway half an hour later. Moulin made up four places at the restart and during the remainder of the first stint Beretta fought his way into the Silver Cup top ten. On the one hour mark both cars pitted for the first of two mandatory stops. Hites and Dörrbecker took over for the middle stint of the race. Both drivers gained several places during their stints and were running tenth and eleventh in class by the time the second pit window opened. Dorrbecker pitted first on lap sixty-three and Paverud took over the 163 car. Three laps later Hites entered the pit lane for Nemoto and as the race entered the final hour both cars were running together, ninth and tenth in Silver Cup. A crash from Valente bought out the Safety Car with forty minutes left and his exit promoted the VSR cars up one place. A brake issue for Paverud meant he fell victim to Pedersen’s Porsche but nevertheless held off a charge from Kujala to claim the final Silver Cup point in tenth. Nemoto finished eighth in Silver Cup.

The season concludes next month with a final three hour race in Barcelona.