Perfect weekend for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in Hungary, as Vanthoor Fässler take double win and Schothorst-Dennis two podium finishes

Perfect weekend for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in Hungary, as Vanthoor Fässler take double win and Schothorst-Dennis two podium finishes

27/08/2017

Pole and two wins for Dries Vanthoor and Marcel Fässler, who proved the fastest car on the track throughout the entire weekend; two podium finishes for Pieter Schothorst and Jake Dennis, who secured a wonderful 1-2 in the Main Race; strong results also for Frijns-Leonard (P5 and P4) and Stevens-Winkelhock (P7 and P5), with Ide-Mies finishing both races: it was something close to a perfect weekend for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in the extremely warm Hungaroring, for the penultimate round of the Blancpain Sprint Cup. The Audis R8 LMS of the Belgian squad dominated the event, which finally saw Dries Vanthoor and Marcel Fässler enjoying a trouble-less weekend and young guns Jake Dennis-Pieter Schothorst ‘coming of age’. Following the Magyar success, the team will be in an excellent position for the Teams’ title battle at the final round of the season at the Nürburgring mid-September, where three of the squad’s pairs will also be in contention for the Drivers’ title. Vanthoor-Fässler and Frijns-Leonard, tied at 56 points, are now the best-placed in the standings, only 4 points behind the leaders, with Winkelhock-Stevens only two points behind them.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse was clearly happy on Sunday afternoon: “This is the kind of weekend that makes you feel good and boosts your morale. Especially after Spa where we worked well but did not achieve the expected results, it is just what we needed. There is little I can say: two wins, two podiums and four cars in the top-5 in the Main Race is a great team result. I want to congratulate everybody in the team for the fantastic job they did. We had great pace, great pit stops and no issues… I also want to underline the superb performance of our younger drivers, it’s one of the great take-aways of this event…”

Things had started well since the beginning, with the WRT Audis R8 LMS very competitive in free practice, which saw car #5 of Fässler-Vanthoor topping both sessions, and four cars of the Belgian squad always in the top-10.

Qualifying ran smoothly, confirming the excellent form of the Audis. In a very closely-fought final session, Dries Vanthoor posted a time of 1.42.359 which meant pole position, a well-deserved first one this year for the young Belgian, who wisely commented the achievement: “I have been struggling in quali this year so I am happy to change the trend.”. Rounding the team’s result, car #3 qualified fourth ahead of car #17, with car #1 taking P7 and car #2 P11.

As often at the Hungaroring, the Qualifying Race on Saturday proved nerve-breaking but offered little to report. Dries Vanthoor took a perfect start from pole and built a comfortable 4-seconds gap in his stint that Marcel Fässler managed perfectly to take a great first win of the season. “The car was great and every lap a pleasure to drive”, reckoned Vanthoor after the race, while Fässler explained: “Dries was on new tyres and I wasn’t, so I knew he could go a bit faster at the beginning. I saw the Lambo was closing the gap but it’s another thing to overtake. I’d like to thank the entire WRT team. It had not been the easiest season for us until this weekend so I am delighted with the result”.

There was more joy for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT as Jake Dennis and Pieter Schothorst took their maiden podium of the season, finishing third after a great race, which saw the young Brit stealing 3^rd from the top Mercedes in the initial stint. The excellent day of the squad was completed by the other cars finishing in the top 8, with Frijns-Leonard taking P5, Stevens-Winkelhock P7 and Ide-Mies P8.

The Main Race on Sunday, on another very hot day, had quite a similar development, with Fässler keeping the advantage in the first stint, despite very close gaps and Vanthoor finishing the job, ahead of team mate Jake Dennis, who took 2^nd thanks to a great pit stop which granted again the Pitstop Challenge to Team WRT mechanics. Both were under strong pressure from the top Lambo in the final laps, thus giving the 1-2 an extra flavour. “It was definitely tougher than yesterday, also because in today’s conditions the car was a little bit trickier to drive”, admitted Vanthoor and Fässler, with the Swiss praising openly his young team mate: “He’s been the fastest guy on track the entire weekend.”

“Two podium finishes is a great result, the best we could hope”, commented Jake Dennis, “I had a good fight with the Lambo and even a small push at some point, but we could stay ahead”. Pieter Schothorst was not less happy: “An amazing weekend and I want to thank the team for the great car they gave us”, said the Dutchman, “The key moment really was the pit-stop where we could jump one position”.

Frijns-Leonard took fourth and Winkelhock-Stevens fifth, after very solid races, completing the great team result while, Ide-Mies finished in P18, after car #1 lost several positions in the opening lap.

The final and decisive round of the Blancpain Sprint Cup will take place at the Nürburgring on 15-17 September.

From all of us at the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, our sincere best wishes to our friend Mike Hawkins, the TV cameraman that was slightly injured today during the pit stop of one of our cars. He suffered an ankle injury but he is doing fine and will be cleared tonight. Get well soon, Mike!

Blancpain Sprint Series - Round 4

Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary

25-27 August 2017

Qualifying Race results:

1. 1. Vanthoor-Fässler (Audi R8 LMS) 34 laps
2. Engelhart-Bortolotti (Lambo Huracan) + 2s758
3. 3. Schothorst-Dennis (Audi R8 LMS) +10s124
4. Perera-Buhk (Mercedes AMG) +10s513
5. 5. Frijns-Leonard (Audi R8 LMS) +18s311
6. 7. Stevens-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS) +23s854
7. 8. Ide-Mies (Audi R8 LMS) + 6s996

Main Race Race results:

1. Fässler-Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS) 33 laps

2. Schothorst-Dennis (Audi R8 LMS) + 0s570

3. Bortolotti-Engelhart (Lambo Huracan) + 0s894

4. Leonard-Frijns (Audi R8 LMS) + 1s477

5. Stevens-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS) + 3s458

18. Ide-Mies (Audi R8 LMS) +31s678

Provisional Drivers’ standings after Round 4 of 5:

1. Buhk-Perera 60 points

2. Bortolotti-Engelhart 57

3. Vanthoor-Fässler 56

Frijns-Leonard 56

5. Winklehock-Stevens 54

7. Schothorst-Dennis 27

23. Mies-Ide 2