Jessica Hawkins completes rookie GT World Challenge Europe campaign at Barcelona
- RACERS
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Jessica Hawkins completed her first season in the GT World Challenge Europe with a P12 in the Bronze Cup at the Barcelona 3-hour finale, showing strong speed in her opening stint and battling well within the top ten in class before an unfortunate incident that put the car one lap down, in what was nevertheless one of her best outings in the series.
Jessica Hawkins completed her first season in the GT World Challenge Europe with a P12 in the Bronze Cup at the Barcelona 3-hour finale, showing strong speed in her opening stint and battling well within the top ten in class after an impressive start. However, her progress was undone by an accident not of her own making, which put the car a lap down, in what has been a challenging campaign for the Comtoyou trio.
In her second GT3 season, Hawkins made the step up to the highly competitive GT World Challenge Europe with the Belgian outfit Comtoyou Racing, sharing the #270 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Alexandre Leroy and Antoine Potty in the Bronze Cup. After developing her GT racing skills in the British GT Championship, the move to GT World Challenge marked an important step forward in her career.
The season began with a promising performance at the Paul Ricard 6 Hours, where the crew showed strong race pace and gained 13 positions to finish P11 in class. However, a heavy crash for a teammate in Monza practice forced the team to withdraw before the race. Her long-awaited debut at the 24 Hours of Spa — the biggest GT3 race in the world — promised redemption, but misfortune struck again when, after an encouraging start that saw the crew climbing towards the Bronze top ten, contact from another car caused race-ending damage just two hours in.
Returning for the Nürburgring event, Hawkins finally broke her streak of bad luck with a positive performance, gaining valuable track time on her first visit to the circuit and helping her teammates bring the Comtoyou Aston Martin home in P13 in class.
The final round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup saw the series return to Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for an event dedicated to the “Llegado Maria de Villota,” marking the 12th anniversary of the Spanish driver's passing. Jessica Hawkins was the only female driver on the grid, aiming to finish her first full GTWC Europe season on a positive note.
The Comtoyou crew was 12th fastest in class in opening practice with a 1:42.947 lap, focusing on finding a balanced setup for the race weekend. Antoine Potty took the wheel for Q1 and set a 1:41.789, eighth fastest in Bronze class and 46th overall. Alexandre Leroy followed in Q2 with a 1:42.962 to go 14th in class. In Q3, Jessica Hawkins took over driving duties and clocked a solid 1:41.733 for P13 in the session, placing the #270 Comtoyou Aston Martin P15 in Bronze and P58 overall in the combined classification.
On Sunday afternoon, under sunny skies at Circuit de Catalunya, Hawkins took the start for the three-hour race. In the 60-car field, chaos erupted at Turn 3 on the opening lap, but Hawkins showed excellent awareness to avoid the incidents and move up to P10 in Bronze, gaining 13 positions overall on the first lap.
After a short safety car, the race returned to green on lap 3. Hawkins quickly picked up another position, overtaking the #66 Tresor Attempto Audi for ninth in Bronze. Showing remarkable pace in the 1:46s, she then passed the UNX Racing Porsche for seventh and continued to gain ground on the cars ahead, matching lap times of Silver-class drivers such as Jamie Day and Job van Uitert. Stuck briefly in traffic, she fought the #8 Kessel Ferrari and #80 Lionspeed Porsche for position before being shuffled to ninth on lap 11.
Her progress came to an abrupt halt on lap 12 when she was pushed wide by the #27 Audi into Turn 7, suffering contact that caused a puncture. Forced to pit for repairs, Hawkins rejoined a lap down just as a major accident involving the #8 Ferrari and #81 Mercedes brought out the safety car.
Despite the setback, Hawkins managed to rejoin in P13 in class. The team took advantage of the safety car period to pit for their first scheduled stop, with Alexandre Leroy taking over for the middle stint.
Leroy resumed in P12 as the race went green again after one hour and gained another position when the #888 Porsche served a penalty. The Belgian maintained competitive pace in the 1:46.3 range, but recovering drivers Tom Lebbon and Mathieu Detry eventually found a way past, dropping him to P13. When the #92 Herberth Motorsport Porsche of Alfred Renauer went off at Turn 3, a Full Course Yellow allowed Leroy to regain a place in class.
Through multiple FCY periods, Leroy kept a steady rhythm just outside the Bronze top ten, before a heavy crash for the #88 Tresor Audi of Rocco Mazzola brought out another safety car. Leroy pitted from P12, handing over to Antoine Potty for the final hour after a solid middle stint.
Potty was soon handed a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane but recovered well. Back under green with 53 minutes remaining, he immediately set the car’s best time — a 1:45.425 — improving on Hawkins’ earlier lap. Despite lapping traffic, Potty continued to improve, lowering the benchmark to a 1:44.8 while chasing the #64 Pro-class Mustang and eventually clearing it on lap 66.
Maintaining consistent 1:45s pace, Potty slowly closed in to the #888 UNX Porsche ahead, which still held over a minute’s advantage. He brought the #270 Comtoyou Aston Martin to the chequered flag in P12 in Bronze, completing what was arguably the team’s strongest race pace-wise of the season across all drivers.
Despite the early incident, Hawkins impressed with her best performance in the series to date, running competitively within the Bronze top ten and showing strong racecraft. Leroy delivered a consistent middle stint, and Potty demonstrated excellent speed in the closing stages.
Though the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance campaign was marked by misfortunes, the Comtoyou Racing trio showed clear progress and competitiveness over the final rounds.
