GTWC Europe: Jessica Hawkins gains vital track time to P13 finish at Nürburgring
- RACERS
- Sep 1
- 5 min read
After two unlucky rounds without race mileage, Jessica Hawkins made her Nürburgring debut, delivering a solid opening stint in the Comtoyou Aston Martin, helping the team secure P13 in the Bronze class in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
Breaking a streak of bad luck that had prevented her from getting behind the wheel in racing conditions at the last two rounds, Jessica Hawkins enjoyed a positive outing in the penultimate endurance round of the GT World Challenge Europe season. On her first visit to the Nürburgring, she made steady progress in the first stint and, together with Comtoyou teammates Antoine Potty and Alexandre Leroy, finished P13 in the Bronze class, gaining crucial track time.
Hawkins returned to the #270 Comtoyou Aston Martin for the penultimate Endurance Cup round of the season, a three-hour race at the Nürburgring — following the 24 Hours of Spa, the flagship event of the SRO season.
Now in her second GT3 campaign after debuting in British GT, where Hawkins continued to make progress across the year and battled for podiums in class. Stepping up to GT World Challenge Europe in 2025 — one of the world’s most competitive GT3 championships — marked a major career move for the British racer: she joined Comtoyou Racing alongside Alexandre Leroy and Antoine Potty, with Rodrigo Almeida joining the line-up for the Spa 24 Hours. The crew competes in the Bronze category.
The season had started encouragingly at the Paul Ricard 6 Hours, where the trio showed strong improvement across the weekend. Despite a difficult qualifying, they recovered 13 positions to finish P11 in class. Misfortune then struck at Monza, when one of Hawkins’ teammates suffered a heavy accident in practice; the damage to the car was too extensive to continue, forcing the team to withdraw.
Excitement was high for Hawkins’ first-ever participation in the 24 Hours of Spa, but bad luck continued. After solid progress in practice, a tricky qualifying meant the crew had to plan a recovery race. They however made a remarkable comeback in the opening hours, climbing towards the top ten in Bronze class, but were eliminated two hours in when another car made contact, causing race-ending damage.
For the second consecutive round, Hawkins was denied the chance to drive in the race.
That set the stage for the Nürburgring, round four of the Endurance Cup, where the team was determined to bounce back.
In pre-event testing, Comtoyou Racing showed encouraging pace, reducing the gap to their rivals. That trend continued into official practice on Saturday morning, where Hawkins recorded a 1:57.503 to place 15th in Bronze class, with most of the field separated by mere thousandths of a second. Further progress followed in Pre-Qualifying, as Hawkins improved to a 1:57.283, keeping the #270 crew in P12 for most of the session before a red flag curtailed running.
Qualifying got underway early Sunday morning in chilly conditions. Hawkins drove the opening segment of Q1, setting a 1:58.358 on her first timed lap. Her second was deleted for track limits, and traffic disrupted her final attempt, leaving her best lap as the opener and placing her P15 in Bronze.
Q2 began under declared wet conditions, with light rain drops prompting all cars to rush out and set a banker lap. Alexandre Leroy took the wheel for the #270 Aston Martin and initially recorded a 1:59.790, improving to 1:58.870 before the session was red flagged due to a collision between the #50 AF Corse Ferrari and the #25 Saintéloc Audi at Turn 1. After the restart, Leroy improved further to a 1:58.222, finishing P15 in class.
In Q3, conditions quickly improved. Antoine Potty set a 1:55.833 early on, putting the Belgian driver inside the top ten, but he eventually slipped to P14 before pitting, as lap times fell rapidly in the final minutes. On combined averages, the #270 Comtoyou Aston Martin placed P16 in Bronze class and P59 overall with a 1:57.471.
Under grey skies, a huge 61-car grid lined up for the three-hour race on the Nürburgring GP layout. Hawkins took the start and kept her cool in the crowded opening laps, holding P16 before gaining positions when Piana’s Winward Mercedes and the Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari hit trouble, climbing to P14.
A further promotion came when the #991 BMW sustained suspension damage in a contact, which triggered the first Full Course Yellow just ten minutes into the race. With the safety car procedure deployed, Hawkins was up to P13 in class.
The restart came at the end of lap 7. Hawkins settled into consistent laps in the 2:00.6 range, chipping away by a few tenths each tour. She closed the gap to the #66 Attempto Racing Audi of Mukovoz, gaining over a second and running just half a second behind for much of the stint. On lap 22 she lowered her best time to a 2:00.032, showing strong consistency. Mukovoz eventually pitted on lap 25, with Hawkins extending her stint and cycling as high as P10 before stopping on lap 28 to hand over to Alexandre Leroy, who rejoined in P13.
Leroy ran solidly in the 2:00s but was soon caught in heavy traffic from faster cars lapping through. He defended well from Salikhov’s #81 Winward Mercedes, eventually yielding but settling into P14. Later in the stint, the team was handed a 30-second track limits penalty, to be served at the next pit stop.
Despite this, Leroy improved to a personal best of 2:00.2 on lap 54, with Hawkins’ earlier lap still standing as the team’s best of the race.
The second Full Course Yellow was triggered late in the second hour, when Conrad Laursen’s #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari was pushed into the gravel by the #99 Attempto Audi. Many teams seized the opportunity to pit, and Leroy handed the Aston Martin over to Antoine Potty on lap 57. Potty rejoined P13 in Bronze.
With 45 minutes to go, racing resumed. Potty immediately found pace, holding P13 and dipping under the two-minute barrier for the first time. He set a 1:59.050, then followed up with consecutive 1:59s on laps 71 and 72, establishing strong late-race pace. By lap 80, he was among the fastest in Bronze.
In the closing minutes, however, the #27 QMMF Saintéloc Audi ahead in class remained too far up the road, with the Silver-class Walkenhorst Aston Martin in between. Potty eventually crossed the line P13 in Bronze class and P48 overall, bringing home a clean result and only the team’s second Endurance Cup finish of the season.
For Hawkins, it was a much-needed learning weekend, finally giving her crucial race mileage after two consecutive DNFs prevented her from driving. Despite an unlucky qualifying session, she kept the Aston Martin in the mix during her stint, gaining valuable experience in race conditions.
“Still not the result we arrive for but our best result yet,” Hawkins commented. “Finally some crucial laps.”
The fifth and final GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup round will take place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 10–12 October.
