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Round 06 - Magny-Cours Sprint Cup

Sprint Cup Event 03 | Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours | 31st July-2nd August 2026

Aston Martin Returns to the Podium Before Pole Opportunity Slips Away. GT World Challenge Europe reached the halfway point of its 2026 Sprint Cup campaign at Magny-Cours, where a record-sized field produced two contrasting races for Aston Martin.

Saturday evening brought the marque’s strongest Sprint Cup result of the season. Kobe Pauwels and Nicki Thiim finished third overall in the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO, securing Comtoyou’s first Sprint Cup podium and Aston Martin’s first overall podium in the short-format championship for seven years.

Thiim then qualified second for Sunday’s race and inherited pole position when the fastest BMW lost its qualifying times following a technical infringement. The Aston Martin led the opening stint, but a penalty for lining up outside the prescribed grid markings prevented the team from converting that opportunity into another major result.

The #7 eventually finished 18th, while Comtoyou’s #21 Vantage secured third place in the Silver Cup. The weekend therefore demonstrated genuine front-running Aston Martin pace, alongside another costly example of a strong opportunity going unrewarded.

Why Blackthorn Was Not at Magny-Cours

Écurie Écosse Blackthorn didn’t compete at Magny-Cours because its #56 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO is entered in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup rather than the Sprint Cup. Blackthorn’s Endurance programme uses the three-driver line-up of Giacomo Petrobelli, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam. Sprint Cup races use two-driver crews and a separate entry list, meaning Blackthorn was not scheduled to appear in France.

Aston Martin was instead represented by three Comtoyou Racing entries and two Walkenhorst Motorsport cars. Blackthorn’s campaign resumes when the Endurance Cup visits the Nürburgring from 28th-30th August.

Race 1: Gounon Controls the Opening Stint

Jules Gounon started Saturday night’s race from pole position in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry and immediately established control. Kiern Jewiss briefly ran second in the Bronze Cup #222 Mercedes-AMG, followed by Lucas Auer in the #48 Winward Racing car. Thomas Neubauer made rapid progress in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari, while Pauwels began the race from sixth in the leading Aston Martin.

The opening laps featured a lively contest involving Neubauer, Max Hesse’s #46 BMW and Pauwels. Hesse initially passed the Ferrari around the outside, but ran wide and was immediately repassed by Neubauer. Pauwels recognised the opportunity and launched the Aston Martin down the inside, completing an excellent late-braking move and moving ahead of the BMW. It was a decisive moment in the #7 car’s race and placed Comtoyou firmly within the leading group.

Gounon, meanwhile, continued to extend his advantage. The Mercedes-AMG driver was comfortably the fastest competitor during the opening phase and had established a sizeable margin before the mandatory driver-change window opened.

Comtoyou Converts Pace into a Podium Position

The #222 Bronze Cup Mercedes-AMG was required to complete a longer minimum pit-stop time than the Pro Cup cars. This removed it from the overall podium contest once the stops began. The #48 Winward Mercedes-AMG should have inherited second place, but its stop was delayed. AF Corse and Comtoyou both capitalised, with Arthur Leclerc emerging second in the #50 Ferrari and Thiim taking over the #7 Aston Martin in third.

Comtoyou’s clean execution was crucial. Pauwels had delivered the car in contention and the team used the driver-change phase to convert that position into an overall podium opportunity. Thiim immediately demonstrated the pace of the Vantage. He remained close to Leclerc and subsequently recorded the fastest lap of the race, completing lap 22 in 1 minute 37.922 seconds.

Full Course Yellow Creates a Late Restart

With approximately 20 minutes remaining, a multi-car incident left the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi damaged and stranded near the circuit. Race control introduced a Full Course Yellow, requiring every car to reduce its speed to 80 kilometres per hour. Unlike a Safety Car period, however, the field was not physically gathered together behind a lead vehicle.

The neutralisation still reduced the gaps between the front runners. When the race restarted at short notice, Leclerc brought the Ferrari back to speed particularly quickly and temporarily reduced Juncadella’s lead. Thiim remained within reach of second place but was also briefly delayed by traffic. The Aston Martin continued to apply pressure without finding a realistic overtaking opportunity.

Juncadella eventually restored a margin of approximately two and a half seconds and completed the victory for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. Leclerc finished second, while Thiim brought the Aston Martin home third. The final margin between the winning Mercedes-AMG and the #7 Vantage was only 3.395 seconds.

Aston Martin’s First Sprint Cup Podium for Seven Years

The result represented a significant breakthrough for Comtoyou Racing. Pauwels and Thiim delivered the team’s first overall Sprint Cup podium, while Aston Martin returned to the championship’s top three for the first time in seven years. The fastest lap further demonstrated that the result had been achieved through genuine race pace rather than circumstances alone.

It was also an important response to Misano. Pauwels had qualified third for the second race in Italy, but the car retired after only seven laps. At Magny-Cours, Comtoyou finally converted its improving Sprint Cup speed into a major result.

The Other Aston Martins in Race 1

Walkenhorst Motorsport’s #34 Aston Martin, driven by Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez, finished 24th overall and third in the Silver Cup. That result continued the crew’s strong class campaign following its two second-place finishes at Misano. Although the car was unable to challenge the overall order at Magny-Cours, another podium maintained its championship momentum.

Comtoyou’s #21 Vantage had qualified on Silver Cup pole, but a technical problem prevented the car from reaching the grid in time. Oliver Söderström and Arthur Dorison were therefore forced to start from the pit lane rather than from the front of their class.

They recovered to finish 27th overall and fifth in Silver. The position did not reflect the car’s qualifying potential, but reaching the finish preserved useful championship points. The #35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin finished 30th overall and sixth in Silver, while Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni placed 40th and 11th in the Bronze Cup in the #11 Comtoyou entry.

Race 2 Qualifying: Thiim Inherits Pole Position

Sunday morning brought another major Aston Martin performance. Kelvin van der Linde initially appeared to have secured pole position in the #32 Team WRT BMW with a lap of 1 minute 35.927 seconds. Thiim was second in the #7 Aston Martin with a time of 1 minute 36.154 seconds, just 0.043 seconds ahead of Christopher Haase’s Audi.

The BMW’s qualifying times were subsequently deleted following a technical infringement involving excessive turbo boost. Van der Linde was sent to the rear of the 44-car field, promoting Thiim and Aston Martin to pole position.

It was Thiim’s first Sprint Cup pole and Aston Martin’s first in the championship since Jonny Adam placed a Garage 59 Vantage on pole at Misano in 2021. After Saturday’s podium and fastest lap, the #7 appeared to have a genuine opportunity to fight for victory.

A Costly Starting-Position Error

Thiim retained the lead when the lights went out, with Marvin Kirchhöfer moving into second in the #59 Garage 59 McLaren. However, the Aston Martin had not been positioned correctly during the rolling start. Thiim was too far towards the centre of the circuit and didn’t pass through the prescribed grid markings on the approach to the line.

The offence was officially recorded as a jump start, although Thiim hadn’t simply accelerated before the lights changed. The penalty related to his position within the two-by-two formation and his failure to follow the correct grid boxes. Race control issued the #7 Aston Martin with a 10-second penalty, which had to be served during the mandatory pit stop before the team could touch the car.

Thiim initially questioned the wording because he had never previously received a jump-start penalty from pole position. During the later red-flag stoppage, he was told that the offence was specifically his positioning rather than an early acceleration. He accepted that he had followed the wrong markings, explaining that there had been several sets of lines on the circuit and that he hadn’t correctly identified which ones applied to the rolling start.

Thiim Pushes to Build a Margin

With the penalty confirmed, Thiim’s task was clear. He needed to build as much of a lead as possible before the driver change. The Aston Martin remained quick in clear air. Thiim traded fastest laps with Kirchhöfer and gradually increased the margin at the front, while Haase’s Audi held up several of the cars behind.

Without further interruptions, Comtoyou might have retained a position within or close to the top ten after serving the penalty. The #7 was unlikely to remain in the victory fight, but a respectable points finish was still possible. That calculation changed when the race was interrupted by a serious accident involving Dustin Blattner’s #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

Red Flag Erases the Advantage

Blattner was involved in contact with Rinat Salikhov’s Bronze Cup Mercedes-AMG on the approach to the Adelaide hairpin. The Ferrari struck the inside wall heavily before crossing the gravel and hitting the tyre barrier. Blattner was taken to hospital for medical checks, while extensive debris and barrier damage forced race control to stop the event.

The red flag erased the gaps Thiim had worked to establish. When the race restarted behind the Safety Car, the field was compressed and the advantage at the front had disappeared. This made the 10-second penalty considerably more damaging. Instead of serving it against a spread-out field, Comtoyou would lose the time with the opposition running much closer together.

The pit window was delayed until after the restart. Thiim continued to lead before entering the pits, where the car was held stationary for 10 seconds before the tyre change and driver swap could begin. Pauwels took over, but the penalty dropped the Aston Martin deep into the field.

Lionspeed Wins Through Pit-Stop Execution

The race victory ultimately went to Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus in the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche. Feller had run fourth during the opening stint behind Thiim, Kirchhöfer and Haase. Lionspeed then produced the fastest pit stop in the field, approximately one second quicker than any rival, allowing Buus to emerge in the lead. Matisse Lismont moved into second overall in the Silver Cup #30 Team WRT BMW, while the #96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini completed a significant recovery from its difficult start to the season.

Luca Engstler passed Thomas Neubauer’s Ferrari during the closing stages to finish third, securing the first GT World Challenge Europe podium for the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3. Buus controlled the shortened final stint and brought the Porsche home ahead of Lismont and Engstler.

Pauwels Finishes 18th

Pauwels completed all 34 laps in the #7 Aston Martin and finished 18th overall, 11th among the Pro Cup entries and 26.201 seconds behind the winner. The finishing position was disappointing, but it did not represent the car’s pace. The Aston Martin had qualified at the front and led the entire opening stint. The decisive setback was the starting-position penalty, with the red flag significantly increasing its consequences.

Comtoyou therefore left Sunday with the frustration of knowing that a procedural mistake, rather than a lack of speed, had prevented the team from challenging for another podium.

Silver Cup Podium for the #21

The strongest Aston Martin result in Race 2 came from the #21 Comtoyou Vantage. Dorison started 19th overall and second in the Silver Cup. He kept the car within the class battle before handing over to Söderström during the delayed pit-stop phase. The pair completed the race 15th overall and third in Silver, recovering strongly from the technical problem that had prevented them from starting Race 1 from class pole.

It was a valuable response from the team and provided another indication of the #21 car’s underlying speed.

The Remaining Aston Martins

The #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin finished 26th overall and seventh in the Silver Cup, while the sister #35 Vantage placed 29th and eighth in class. The #11 Comtoyou Bronze Cup entry completed 25 laps before stopping and was classified 38th overall and ninth in its category.

Walkenhorst did not repeat its double Misano podium, but the #34 crew remains second in the Silver Cup drivers’ standings. Comtoyou’s Race 1 overall podium and Race 2 Silver result nevertheless made Magny-Cours Aston Martin’s strongest Sprint Cup meeting of 2026.

Genuine Pace and a Major Lost Opportunity

The raw Race 2 result doesn’t tell the complete Aston Martin story. Thiim and Pauwels arrived at Magny-Cours having shown encouraging qualifying speed at Misano but with little to show for it. In France, they finally converted that potential into an overall podium, secured the fastest lap and then placed the car on the front row for Sunday’s race.

The #7 was not handed its position solely through circumstances. Pauwels gained ground through decisive racecraft in Race 1, Comtoyou executed the driver change effectively, and Thiim recorded the fastest lap while challenging near the front. The inherited pole position for Race 2 was partly the result of the BMW’s exclusion, but Thiim had still qualified second in a 44-car field and had been separated from the leading time by less than a quarter of a second.

The starting-position error was therefore especially costly. The Aston Martin had the pace to lead and had begun to build an advantage, only for the penalty and subsequent red flag to remove it from contention. Magny-Cours should ultimately be viewed as an encouraging weekend. Aston Martin returned to the overall Sprint Cup podium, recorded a pole position and fastest lap, and added two further Silver Cup podiums across the event.

The result also reinforced the season’s central theme. The Vantage AMR GT3 EVO possesses the performance required to compete at the front; Aston Martin’s teams must now convert that potential into consistent, complete race weekends. This preserves the explanatory approach used at Misano while making the distinction between Thiim’s official “jump-start” penalty and the actual grid-position error clear.