Ayhancan Güven stormed from the rear of the pack to secure Türkiye’s first ever gold medal in today’s GT Sprint race.
The contest was made more interesting when pole-sitter Güven was sent to the back of the grid for running an underweight car. The Porsche driver was going to need to work for this win.
When the lights went out Güven immediately charged to fifth and then made quick work of Jazeman Jafaar (Malaysia Lamborghini) and Darren Leung (United Kingdom Ferrari).
The Safety Car was deployed before the 10-minute mark to remove the Chinese Taipei Mercedes-AMG from the gravel. This played to Güven’s advantage as he was now on the rear of Daniel Juncadella (Spain Mercedes-AMG).
The Turkish racer did not need long to pass his Spanish rival and was now closing in on leader Finn Wiebelhaus in the Team Germany Mercedes-AMG. But the teenager was not going to be an easy overtake.
Wiebelhaus made full use of his car’s superior top-end speed to keep his rival at bay for several laps. It took a lot of work, but Güven finally squeezed through a Porsche-sized gap with less than five minutes remaining to claim gold.
Wiebelhaus added a silver to the gold he scored yesterday in GT, while Juncadella took bronze for Spain.