Once again, the Team Thunderhead Mercedes-AMG GT3 prepared by AKKA ASP Team demonstrated great pace from the beginning of Saturday’s Free Practice session at a circuit Jack has enjoyed prior success.
Qualifying for the afternoon’s 3-hour race commenced on Sunday morning with Jules taking to the track first, posting an impressive P2 in class. Jack followed, but his qualifying was impeded by repeated yellow flags and incidents, eventually delivering a solid P8 in class. Jack’s best sectors indicated he was headed towards a Silver Cup Top 3, but the session ended early with a red flag.
Nico followed with a comparatively clear Qualifying 3 to place P1 in class and third overall, a testament to both the team’s pace and their race prospects in the afternoon. With Qualifying results combined, car #90 lined up P4 in class, 20th overall.
Opting to ride the momentum of Qualifying, Nico took the green flag for the race and started strong, running 13th overall, P1 in class by the end of the first hour. After a rapid driver change pitstop, Jack took charge of the battle for Silver Cup class victory with strong pace throughout his stint, maintaining P1 in class.
At the 2-hour mark, a slew of racing incidents prompted multiple full-course yellows and Safety Car periods through which Jack maintained the team’s class lead ahead of many of the chasing pro drivers. The melee following race restarts are always a challenge, and in the last of these a brief moment off-line in a train of cars dropped car #90 to 4th in class.
Jules took over for the final hour which proved to be as eventful as the second with many more incidents, allowing the team to make quick progress through the field. Jules crossed the line in 15th overall, 3rd in class – a brilliant result to end the season with, and another visit to the podium for Jack.
Looking back on his success over the season, Jack said:
