Maserati triumphs at Zandvoort: two overall victories and a GT2 European Series weekend to remember
In Race 1, Prette from LP Racing took the overall win.
Calamia and Pampanini from Dinamic Motorsport made a strong impression in Race 2
Zandvoort, 18 May 2025 – Emotions, adrenaline and triumphs: in the second race-weekend of the 2025 GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli season, Maserati was the star of the show on the legendary Dutch track at Zandvoort, with the Maserati GT2s taking overall and class victories.
In Race 1, starting from pole position, the number 1 car from the LP Racing team – driven by Philippe Prette – saw the reigning Am Class champion achieve an extraordinary overall victory as well as in its class. In Race 2 the French driver with an Italian licence repeated his success in the Am Class, obtaining third place overall.
Conversely, there was victory in Race 2 for Roberto Pampanini and Mauro Calamia, driving the Dinamic Motorsport Maserati GT2: after runner-up position in the Pro-Am Class and third overall in Race 1, it was time for victory in the weekend’s second challenge.
The first race of the weekend saw Philippe Prette, leader in the Am Class, start from pole position and immediately set an unsustainable pace for his opponents, gaining a margin of more than 15 seconds before pitting for the mandatory stop. In the second half of the race, the driver with an Italian licence resisted the comeback of the professional drivers behind him, taking overall success with less than a second of advantage, as well as the lead in the Am Class.
A driver in the Am Class had not achieved an overall victory since 2022.
Third beneath the chequered flag for the Dinamic Motorsport Maserati GT2 number 7, lined up in the Pro-Am Class: Roberto Pampanini kept the car on the lowest step of the podium in the first half of the race, before handing the wheel over to Switzerland’s Mauro Calamia, who completed the race with an overall podium and as runner-up in his category.
Race 2 saw the Dinamic Motorsport Maserati GT2 start from third on the grid with Mauro Calamia; the Swiss driver quickly moved up to second place before handing the wheel over to Roberto Pampanini. The Italian emerged in the same position and tailed the race leader, before launching a decisive attack just minutes from the end. He took the overall win and victory in the Pro-Am Class, to complete a triumphant weekend for the House of the Trident.
Race 1 winner Philippe Prette, in the LP Racing team’s number 1 Maserati GT2, started from the back of the grid after an accident in the qualifiers. Even so, he led a decisive comeback that, after the pit stops, brought him another win in the Am Class, as well as the third step on the overall podium.
Maria Conti, Head of Maserati Corse, noted: “Once again today, we have reconfirmed how Maserati’s racing DNA is synonymous with passion, success and performance. We did it with wins and an extraordinary haul – a pole, two overall victories, two first places in the Am Class, as well as a P1 and a P2 in the Pro-Am Class – on a completely new track for the GT2 European Series.
Zandvoort with its curves and elevation gain is an extremely fascinating track and is even more so for us: a Maserati 4CL won the first ever race held here in 1948, with the Prince of Siam at the wheel. This weekend we added a new chapter to our glorious history in motorsport, ahead of the major anniversary we will be celebrating next year, when we reach a century of Maserati in racing. The countdown has already begun, and now the spotlight falls on the Maserati GT2 in the iconic setting of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa to increase the milestones in our trophy haul”.
The next round of the GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli is scheduled to take place in Spa, Belgium, from 26 to 29 June.
Maserati MSG Racing concludes an intense double header in Tokyo
A weekend of mixed fortunes for Maserati MSG Racing in Japan.
NUMBERS
Stoffel Vandoorne
Free Practice Three // P17
Qualifying // P19 [1:14.453, Group A]
Race // DNF
Positions Gained // 0
Fastest Lap // 1:15.673
Championship Position // P10 [44 points]
Jake Hughes
Free Practice Three // P3
Qualifying // P18 [1:14.234, Group B]
Race // P18
Positions Gained // 0
Fastest Lap // 1:16.808
Championship Position // P15 [27 points]
Maserati MSG Racing
Championship Position // P7 [71 points]
After the elation of the Round 8 victory in Tokyo, Maserati MSG Racing wasn’t able to repeat their race-winning performance, with Jake Hughes finishing in P18 and yesterday’s winner, Stoffel Vandoorne unable to complete Round 9 following late-race contact.
With no qualifying yesterday and no threat of rain for today’s race day, Stoffel and Jake knew how important today’s session would be.
Stoffel was out first in Group A and felt comfortable with the car having made adjustments following FP3. He was ready to put in a strong push lap when Jaguar’s Mitch Evans had a heavy crash into the barriers, bringing a delay to the group stage. Stoffel did all he could, but traffic made the perfect lap impossible to achieve. He missed out on progressing to the duels by half a second.
Jake was in Group B, but it quickly became apparent that tyre temperatures were once again causing him issues. He too missed out on progressing to the duels by a narrow margin, the whole group covered by eight tenths of a second.
Trying to get the most out of the race, the team split strategies. Jake had the bolder early Attack Mode where Stoffel’s race was more measured and following the expected strategy. Jake’s strategy, however, was scuppered by a very late safety car for McLaren’s Taylor Barnard.
Being so late to be deployed, the window to add laps to the race had expired, giving Jake one lap to activate and complete his remaining two minutes of Attack Mode. He had to slow significantly in the final lap to comply to the Attack Mode regulations before taking the chequered flag, dropping him to the bottom of the classified order.
It was insult added to injury, as Stoffel had come into the pits as the safety car was deployed with heavy damage on his car. Nissan’s Norman Nato had a torque cut as Stoffel had been moving to overtake him, causing the two to have contact. Stoffel was briefly lifted into the air causing a broken front wing and a puncture which forced him to retire from the race.
It was not the sign off to the weekend Maserati MSG Racing were hoping for after the highs of yesterday. The team’s focus now turns to optimising qualifying performance, aiming to return stronger for the next rounds in Shanghai.
QUOTES
Jake Hughes, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “Overall, we can only say it’s a successful weekend; any weekend the team get a win is successful weekend. Today feels like a missed opportunity, not because we did anything wrong, but because we didn’t maximise qualifying. At the moment we don’t completely understand this tyre. In Free Practice 3, I was out the front always, around P2, P3, sometimes even P1, confident with the car. Then we put a different set of tyres on for qualifying and we’re at the back. It’s not reflective of the true pace of the car; we’re just missing something in tyre preparation which we need to understand. In the race, I got to a good place with my strategy, in the points, but unfortunately the safety car took away all that hard work. It was too late in the race for me, and I couldn’t fulfil the Attack Mode allocation, so I had to slow down about 60 seconds on the final lap to avoid an Attack Mode infringement penalty. We learnt a lot this weekend, we got a win for the team, so we go into Shanghai with, hopefully, some good momentum.”
Stoffel Vandoorne, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “It was a tough race today and unfortunately I didn’t finish. It was an unlucky accident with Norman; he had a power cut out of Turn 8, just as I was on Attack Mode and overtaking him. We had contact, my car took off which caused a puncture and a broken front wing which meant I couldn’t make it to the end. I think it would have been a decent race; we could have finished P9 with a couple of points. That would have been nice, probably the maximum we could have done today. We’ve got some work to do, got to improve our qualifying performance because it’s been a little bit up and down. Overall, leaving Tokyo with a victory so we can be proud of that, and looking forward to Shanghai.”
Cyril Blais, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing: “We have to self-reflect on today, we didn’t do the job in qualifying, so we started too far back. In the race, we split the strategy between our drivers and they both did their job, and both were up in the top ten fighting for points. Unfortunately, Stoffel had race-ending contact and Jake had the late safety car which neutralised both their strategic advantages. The safety car came one lap too late for Jake – otherwise he would have been fighting for points. It wasn’t our day today. We did what we had to in the race, now we need to focus and try to understand how to maximise our one lap pace because that’s what cost us today.”
Maria Conti, Head of Maserati Corse: “Today’s race finished off an extraordinary weekend in Tokyo. The final outcome includes not only a memorable victory, but above all the outstanding work of the entire team. Every race weekend is an opportunity for learning. From Tokyo, we take home some fundamental lessons to be implemented both off the track and in races so we can improve in the second part of the season. This country is one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of development and innovation in technology, as well as being a key city within Maserati’s strategy, offering the possibility to meet our customers. Looking ahead, our firm goal remains to keep performance at its peak and to get closer to the leading group so we can improve our results. We bring Maserati’s competitive DNA to every round, taking us closer and closer to our brand’s centenary in motorsport, a milestone to which the countdown has already begun.”
Victorious Vandoorne continues Maserati MSG racing Tokyo winning streak
A tale of two races as rain played the role of luck in the first Tokyo E-Prix.
NUMBERS
Stoffel Vandoorne
Free Practice One // P5
Free Practice Two // P14
Qualifying // P14 [Cancelled due to rain. FP2 result used]
Race // P1
Positions Gained // 13
Fastest Lap // 1:24.625
Championship Position // P7 [44 points]
Jake Hughes
Free Practice One // P9
Free Practice Two // P15
Qualifying // P15 [Cancelled due to rain. FP2 result used]
Race // P19
Positions Gained // -4
Fastest Lap // 1:24.412
Championship Position // P14 [27 points]
Maserati MSG Racing
Championship Position // P6 [71 points]
Maserati MSG Racing picked up where we left off last time racing in Tokyo with victory. A perfectly timed Pit Boost saw Stoffel Vandoorne climb the field from 14th to take the team’s first win of the season.
The torrential rain played its part in today’s race day, not only affecting second practice but seeing qualifying cancelled for the first time in Formula E’s history. This meant that the grid was set using the results of free practice two, placing Stoffel and Jake Hughes in P14 and P15 respectively.
The rain had not disappeared prior to the start of the race, with a lot of standing water still on the track. This led to the decision that the race would be started behind the Safety Car, racing at a slower speed to help clear the water that remained on track. Aided by the fact rain had stopped falling due to delaying the start of the race by ten minutes, the grid took to their positions for a standing start four laps into the race.
Jake and Stoffel handled the standing start well, fighting off the surrounding cars and rain spray to safely and successfully make it through the first corner. No positions were gained, Jake losing a few and picking up some minimal front wing damage, but both cars continued into the race.
The Maserati MSG Racing duo started to look to when best to take their Pit Boost. Opting for a bold strategy, Stoffel pitted first in what would become the moment that won him the Tokyo E-Prix.
As Stoffel rejoined the race, Max Guenther’s DS PENSKE came to a halt on track, the position of the car triggering a red flag. However, this meant that Stoffel had basically taken his Pit Boost for free, losing no time on the field, and would climb up the order without the need of risky manoeuvres as the rest of the competition came in to take their Pit Boosts.
Jake stayed with Stoffel, acting rear gunner, as the pair moved through the grid together in the perfect team strategy to make it to P3 and P4. Unfortunately, Jake still had to take his Pit Boost and couldn’t optimise on the same strategy as Stoffel. A failure with his Pit Boost lost him a lot of time and he fell back down the timing tower when he came in towards the final stages of the race. He rejoined P19 and 28 seconds off the closest car. Jake needed another incident to get him back in the race, whilst Stoffel needed the race to remain incident free to capitalise on his perfectly timed stop.
There was a moment of concern as the rain began to return and Stoffel was caught out, spinning on track. He managed to only lose five seconds of his 25 second lead to Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and continue with no real damage to the car despite having hit the wall. From there, Stoffel took no additional risks, backing off and just focusing on keeping the car on track as he drove to Maserati MSG Racing’s first victory of the season.
The team go again tomorrow, hoping to get a chance to show the potential of the Maserati Tipo Folgore in qualifying and to have both cars fighting up the front of the grid.
QUOTES
Jake Hughes, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “The biggest win today – aside from my teammate who I’m buzzing for – is the fact that we actually got a race on for the fans. There was a lot of today where it just looked like the rain was too much and we weren’t going to get to do any racing. To get a clean race was a job well done by the whole paddock. As for the race, a mega strategy by the team for Stoffel. It fell his way today but he still had to execute it, still had to get it to the chequered flag, so a fantastic job from him. We’ve had a difficult season so far; we haven’t had a lot of luck so it’s nice that we got a bit of luck and a good performance from Stoffel today with the win. My race was the complete opposite. Some damage early on which wasn’t the end of the world, but then we had a failure in the pit stop with the Pit Boost and I lost about 30 seconds. Then it’s basically game over. We go again tomorrow, hopefully get to complete a proper qualifying and can show the full potential of the Maserati Tipo Folgore.”
Stoffel Vandoorne, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “I forgot what it feels like to win! It feels weird because it’s a little bit unexpected, but at the same time I knew it was 100% possible. We had a very bold strategy: to spend so much energy in the beginning to open our pit window very early. Being able to be first into the pit lane and offset ourselves from the rest, which we managed to do. I love it when a plan comes really into play; every little thing that you discuss before the race actually happens. It’s very rare that it comes together like that in Formula E but today was one of those days. We execute a perfectly planned strategy. It was very ballsy! It made my life difficult at times; after the pit stop with such a low energy target and having to manage the battery of the car. There was a lot of communication between myself and Thibault, but he kept me very calm, managed to have good communication, kept me up to date with the gap behind to the other guys so I knew exactly how much I could back off and could do the saving that I needed to do.”
Cyril Blais, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing: “What an amazing result! We wanted to be a bit aggressive in this race because we couldn’t do qualifying. Not being able to show our pace, we started a bit further back than expected and knew we would need to try something different. The guys came up with a plan and so we tried a positive strategy on both cars to cover a variety of options. There was a bit of luck, and we needed it to get this great result, but it doesn’t change the fact that the team thought about all the outcomes, covered all the options. We felt like if there was an opportunity to get big points, we would be there to grab it and that’s exactly what happened. The execution was faultless. We are very happy with that win.
“It’s a team victory. For Jake, unfortunately the race didn’t fall the way we wanted. He switched focus to play rear gunner for Stoffel, let him pass when he had to. It was the perfect team game, so this victory is a team victory. I want to thank both drivers; Jake was a big part of it.
“Thanks to everyone – a job well done. We’ll celebrate the moment, but then we focus straight back to tomorrow. There’s still some work to do. Today luck was on our side but tomorrow I want to win on pure pace.”
Maria Conti, Head of Maserati Corse: “What an unpredictable and incredible day! Winning in Tokyo again after last year’s triumph is an amazing feeling! This street circuit is extremely fascinating and technical, made even more unpredictable by the rain and the Pit Boost. We experienced unforgettable emotions in the heart of one of the most iconic cities in the world, surrounded by an extremely welcoming audience, which made the day wonderful. Today, we have written another memorable chapter to Maserati’s almost 100 years of history in motorsport. The team’s work, the perfect strategy and Stoffel’s determination made the difference. Today’s result drives us ahead into a significant second half of the season and we can’t wait to get back on the track tomorrow to battle to be one of the best.”
Maserati MSG Racing
Maserati MSG Racing is one of the founding teams of the FIA Formula E World Championship and in December 2013, became the first manufacturer to join motorsport’s premier fully-electric category. As one of only a handful of constant participants since the series’ inaugural 2014/15 season, MSG Racing has moved from strength to strength and tasted vice World Championship success in 2021 before completing its most successful season to date in 2022, finishing the campaign as the vice World Teams’ Champions.