r/Sportscar_Racing • u/davidwholt • Nov 17 '24

Other regional/national championships Macau main race Spoiler

https://sportscar365.com/other-series/gt-world-cup/engel-snatches-macau-win-in-rain-soaked-main-race/
26 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

28

u/ThatAssholeRob Nov 17 '24

Don’t post this, post the fucking replay of the race! Everyone needs to see that. Fucking hell it was excellent

21

u/LilBirdBrick Nov 17 '24

That has to be the best GT race I've ever seen at Macau. What a race, and what a way for Mercedes to keep their win streak going.

17

u/donutsnail Nov 17 '24 edited Nov 17 '24

I know it is hard in the heat of the moment but Fuoco made a huge mistake moving into that puddle to defend from Marciello. Even without the tap, he wasn’t going to make the corner either because there was just not enough grip to slow the car in that puddle. Super exciting race, and Macau in the rain is such a visual spectacle

4

u/Secret_Physics_9243 Nov 17 '24

Fuoco moved under braking

3

u/afito Nov 17 '24

Marciello broke so late that he was always going to hit Fuoco, him moving only meant that he was hit in the rear but not the side. He hit the car in front and overshot the corner by a huge margin there's really zero chance this was ever going to be clean, that move was meant to make contact Fuoco one way or the other. Frankly it was clearly a "either I win or we both lose" type of move, just plain dirty. Marciello is a better driver than this.

2

u/Tecnoguy1 Nov 17 '24

Lelo would’ve released the brakes to roll through. He’s not a cunt.

7

u/Iamabus1234 Nov 17 '24

What an insane ending.

5

u/phifefoot_assassin Nov 17 '24

Really thought this was going to be an easy BOP win due to the late post qualifying boost adjustment for BMW. But goddamn did both Marciello and Vanthoor bottle it despite having a front row lockout.

8

u/da_bubs Nov 17 '24

I disagree with "bottling it". BMWs didn't look good in the rain earlier in the weekend, and generally don't look great in the rain compared to some other brands.

Vanthoor wasn't going to win with how twitchy his car was, but he got bumped into the wall by the Mercedes. Marciello had the pace for 3rd but could have won because of track position with his speed down the front "straight". He and Fuoco had a great battle that unfortunately ended in both missing the corner.

My only complaint with the race is the 5 second penalty for Engel. His bump wasn't egregious, but he did take a top competitor completely out of the race. There has to be some meaningful penalty for that. On a different track Vanthoor goes wide and comes back on, and 5 second penalty is fair. On a tight street circuit with no runoff, a small bump is catastrophic. Drivers know that and the penalty should reflect it.

3

u/phifefoot_assassin Nov 17 '24

This is Macau we are talking about, overtaking is nearly impossible rain or not. It was only Fuoco who managed it on a corner you don’t expect to overtake anyway. Hell the BMW’s still had the straight line speed so overtaking in Lisboa was also not going to happen. If not for Marciello misjudging Lisboa he would have probably re-overtaken Fuoco as well. Vanthoor was Engel’s fault but at the same time he was sliding throughout the whole race, if he just drove better up the mountain section Engel wouldn’t have accidentally tapped him.

If you have two cars of your brand start 1-2 at Macau and neither of them even finish, then how is it anything less then bottling the race?

5

u/da_bubs Nov 17 '24

Because bottling implies that you lost it on your own mistakes. Dries lost on Engel's mistake, which was under punished in my opinion. Fuoco and Marciello both made a mistake, so maybe you can argue bottling there. Still seems a bit of an overstatement. Both pushed a little too hard in tricky conditions.