Reigning Blancpain GT Series overall champions Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart claimed victory in the 60-minute opening round of the 2018 Sprint Cup at Zolder.
The pair won after quick pit work from the Grasser Racing crew brought their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 out ahead of the pole-sitting Audi R8 driven by WRT’s Will Stevens and Dries Vanthoor.
After Engelhart’s early pressure on the Audi, Bortolotti extended his inherited lead to three seconds at the finish. Christopher Mies and Alex Riberas were third in a second WRT-prepared R8.
Bortolotti and Engelhart won last year’s BGTS overall title, which combines points from the Sprint and Endurance competitions, but this was their first victory in the series since the 3 Hours of Silverstone 11 months ago.
Attempto Racing On Top in Race Two
Vanthoor and Stevens also had a chance to win the weekend’s second race on Saturday, but lost out to the Attempto Racing squad which notched up its first win as an Audi customer.
Kelvin van der Linde and Steijn Schothorst, who started second, benefited from a drive-through for the Vanthoor/Stevens Audi that once again started from pole. An unsafe exit from the pit lane for Vanthoor after Stevens’ clear opening stint handed the advantage to Attempto, which ran a Lamborghini last campaign.
Having taken over from Audi factory asset Van der Linde, Schothorst nursed the gap to the AKKA-ASP Mercedes AMG-GT3 of Michael Meadows and ex-Ferrari F1 junior Raffaele Marciello. Vanthoor ultimately finished 12th, 50 seconds adrift.
Discussion about this post