The Mercedes
side somehow compensated for losing in the pit stops the Blancpain GT Sprint Qualifying Race at
Hungaroring by holding an on-fire WRT
squad on its key point, although the ones responsible for that were
the HTP Motorsport
team thanks to the events in the first lap, which opened the way for
Maximilian Buhk
and Dominik Baumann
their second Blancpain GT win in the season.
The start was all
about defending for Enzo Ide,
but Tristan Vautier
in the No. 88 AKKA-ASP
Mercedes tried a late brake maneuver in the first corner, which left
an opening for a full WRT attack with the No. 1 and the No. 33 Audis,
and while the leading trio seemed to go a bit overboard with its
defending tactics, the HTP Motorsport joined the show with the
Mercedes Nos. 84 & 86, and the 84 one took advantage of the mess
along with the lead.
Crowded packs
sometimes lead to some sort of disaster, and the McLaren No. 59 from
Garage 59 was one of the involved, as it joined the barriers with the
No. 5 Phoenix Racing Audi, ending the races of Martin Plowman and
Nicolaj Moller Madsen and bringing the first full course yellow.
Green flag came back
only with 15 minutes of racing, and as in the Qualifying Race the
leading Mercedes took a good lead while Frederic
Vervisch in the No. 1 WRT Audi passed
Enzo Ide in the No. 33 WRT Audi for second place. We had 8 minutes
with any significant changes until the engine of the No. 100 Attempto
Racing Lamborghini said goodbye to Jeroen Mul and the car stopped in
the grass a bit after the start/finish line, calling out a local
yellow flag, with indications of oil on track.
Different from
Saturday, all the frontrunners went to early pit stops,a nd the No.
84 HTP Mercedes conquered a personal victory as they kept the lead
against the quick pit strategy from WRT, with Laurens
Vanthoor leaving the pits with the risk
of getting an unsafe release penalty when side by side with a
Lamborghini Huracán from Grässer Racing.
Although Christopher
Mies started his stint with a hard
charge, he still had Vanthoor ahead of him, and with none of them
pushing enough to challenge Dominik Baumann, positions stayed the
same for a long time. Mies still tried a last push into Vanthoor but
simply couldn’t find an opening to overtake, so Baumann just kept
going away from them, eventually getting the checkered flag for HTP
Motorsport while the WRT contenders completed the overall podium.
As a relief today,
WRT conquered the Silver Cup victory with the No. 5 Audi, while
AKKA-ASP made a 1-2 in the Pro-Am class with Mercedes Nos. 89 &
87, while the No. 111 Kessel Racing Ferrari took the Am Cup win.
Now we go to a three week stop until the next Blancpain GT meeting, as the full Nürburgring GP circuit will host the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup finale on September 17th-18th.
PHOTO: Blancpain GT Series
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