Unexpected win in Portugal brings the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT closer to Blancpain Sprint titles

Unexpected win in Portugal brings the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT closer to Blancpain Sprint titles

06/09/2015

It was a long but worthy journey to Portugal, as the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT comes back from the Algarve circuit near Portimão with an unexpected but precious win in the Main race and a second position in the Qualifying race for Laurens Vanthoor-Robin Frijns. These excellent results, despite the Audi R8 LMS ultra not being the quickest car on the challenging Lusitanian track, strengthen significantly the first position of the young guns duo in the Drivers’ standings, and get the Belgian squad quite closer to the Teams’ drivers, in the Blancpain Sprint Series.

Further points finishes for Ortelli-Richelmi, Mies-Ide and Stippler-Nash completed a weekend which was expected to be not easy. The team can now focus on the last and decisive round of the Blancpain Endurance Series, to be held in two weeks at the Nürburgring, where the squad will be as well in contention for both titles.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse was evidently satisfied: “The overall result is relatively unexpected, but we take everything good that comes! We feared the level of performance of some of our competitors and we were right. But we were also right in never giving up. This brought us a nice second yesterday and a superb win today, which is the result of different factors, but one in particular: the absolutely perfect job of our guys at the pit stop. I really want to congratulate them and this one is for them. Laurens and Robin did a superb job too, and the other drivers as well. If I really have to find something to say is that we still need to raise the game of all the four cars”.

The weekend started well for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars as they managed to close the gap throughout the free sessions. In qualifying, Christopher Mies took a sensational pole, the fourth this year for the squad, with Frijns in third, Ortelli in 5^th and Stippler in 11^th.

At the start of the Qualifying race, with some drops of rain, Mies was out-powered by the Bentley of Abril but managed to retake the lead by going wide in turn 1. Inevitably, the German received a drive-through penalty which ruined the hopes of car #2, obliged to a ‘catch-up’ race eventually finished in P9 among the Pro cars. Vanthoor was then second and trying to keep the pace of the leader. An excellent pit stop allowed Frijns to get back to the track ahead of Buhk but the Bentley quickly retook the lead. The young Dutchman, though, managed to stay in the tail of the British car during all his stint, attempting a last-lap overtaking in turn 9. “I gave it a last shot when I saw a tiny space to do so”, explained the Dutchman, “We got door-to-door and even touched, which caused a slow puncture on one of my tires. It didn’t go through but it was a good fight and I had a lot of fun!” Stippler and Nash brought home car #4 in P6 after a consistent race, while there was no luck for Ortelli-Richelmi, who had to retire shortly after the pit stop with a mechanical issue after running as high as 4^th.

The Main race was close to perfect race for car #1 of Robin Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor. The Dutchman took a perfect start but couldn’t avoid the Bentley taking the lead. Things though worked in favour of the Audi, first thanks to an unexpected safety-car period (to reposition a draining grid on the surface of the track) which reduced the gaps, then a perfect pit stop and a small problem at the restart for the Bentley allowed Vanthoor to build a sufficient gap to take a superb win. “We were thinking ‘championship’ “, admitted the Belgian, “and we grabbed very important points, but we never let go good opportunities to win! This was one and today I was feeling much better than yesterday at the wheel of the car. I really must say that Robin and the mechanics did an outstanding job during the entire weekend.”

Ortelli-Richelmi took some good points with their 5^th position, while Ide-Mies were able to climb up to 7^th after Saturday’s misfortunes. The unlucky guys today were Stippler-Nash, 10^th in the Pro cars, who lost a lot of time because of a misunderstanding, the Brit being called to the pits too early.

The Blancpain GT Series next include the final and decisive round of the Endurance Series at the Nürbrugring on 19-20 September, while the Sprint Series will be back on 3-4 October at Misano.

Blancpain Sprint Series - Round 5

Portimão, Algarve, Portugal

5-6 September 2015

Qualifying Race results:

1. Buhk-Abril (Bentley Continental) 34 laps in 1h01m26s441
2. 2. Frijns-Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS ultra) - 1s980
3. Mayr Melnhof-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS u.) -12s974
4. Seefried-Siedler (Ferrari 458) -15s106
5. Thurn u.Taxis-Catsburg (Lambo LP560) -25s782
6. Nash-Stippler (Audi R8 LMS ultra) -32s352

10. Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS ultra) -58s866 (9^th in Pro)

DNF Richelmi-Ortelli (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 24 laps (mechanical)

Main Race Race results:

1. Frijns-Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 32 laps in 1h00m24s028

2. Mayr Melnhof-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS u.) - 8s618

3. Siedler-Seefried (Ferrari F458) -15s399

4. Buhk-Abril (Bentley Continental) -16s204

5. Ortelli-Richelmi (Audi R8 LMS ultra) -22s783

7. Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS ultra) -30s676

12. Nash-Stippler (Audi R8 LMS ultra) -1m10s389 (10^th in Pro)

Provisional Drivers’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 5 of 7:

1. Vanthoor-Frijns 109 points

2. Abril-Buhk 83

3. Abeu-Brito 59

4. Seefried-Siedler 58

5. Ortelli-Richelmi 56

7. Mies-Ide 36

15. Nash-Stippler 18

Provisional Teams’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 5 of 7:

1. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 141 points

2. BMW Sports Trophy Team Brazil 95

3. Bentley HTP 89

4. Rinaldi Racing 61

5. Phoenix Racing 55