Audi claimed its first victory of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series with WRT pair Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard commanding the 60-minute qualifying race at Zolder.
Leonard held off a gaggle of GT3 cars to secure his maiden Blancpain GT triumph, after taking over from Frijns who led the opening stint from pole position.
After 37 laps, Leonard took the chequered flag 0.798 seconds ahead of Michael Meadows in the #90 Mercedes AMG-GT3 started from third by Raffaele Marciello.
A dramatic start saw overall BGTS points leader Mirko Bortolotti crash out before the first corner, after Come Ledogar lost control of his McLaren and veered into the Lamborghini driver.
That prompted a safety car period, which enabled Frijns to maintain his lead over Marciello into the round of mandatory pit stops.
The two leaders opted to come in simultaneously with 29 minutes to go, but the order retained its original shape.
Leonard held off Meadows during the final half-hour, as pressure mounted from behind with Franck Perera charging up to third in the Sprint Cup points-leading HTP Motorsport Mercedes.
However, Perera was pegged back by the stewards for a pit-lane infringement because his car's engine was still running whilst propped up on its jacks.
That allowed Markus Winkelhock, whose team-mate Will Stevens had started their Audi from ninth on the 33-car grid, to move up to third but the recently crowned Nurburgring 24 Hours winner couldn't mount a challenge to get past Meadows.
Behind Winkelhock in fourth was Clemens Schmid in the #75 ISR Audi shared with Filip Salaquarda (+1.746s from leader), ahead of the Felix Serralles/Daniel Juncadella AKKA-ASP Mercedes (+2.749).
Completing the top six was the 2016 championship-winning Audi of Christopher Mies and Enzo Ide, which climbed 13 places.
Pro-Am honours went Carlo van Dam and Thai driver Piti Bhirombhakdi in their Ferrari 488 GT3, whilst Lewis Williamson and David Fumanelli took victory in the Silver-Cup for Strakka Racing.
The qualifying race order defines the starting grid for the 60-minute main race, which gets underway tomorrow (Sunday, June 4th) at 15:30 local time.
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