A Dutch-British pair carried the
Belgian flag to a home race win as Robin Frijns and Stuart
Leonard in the No. 17 WRT Audi won from green to checkered
the Blancpain GT Sprint Cup Qualifying Race at Zolder while
holding constant Mercedes threats through the race.
The green flag was out and the crashes
were on as a little push in the back from the No. 74 ISR Audi
triggered a chain reaction that sent the No. 43 Strakka McLaren
and the winning No. 63 GRT Lamborghini straight into the home
straight wall, ending both races and bringing the Safety Car in. To
clean the whole mess and tow both cars 10 minutes were needed and
then the race was properly on green.
Once the race got back it was typical
Zolder traffic jam as the No. 59 Strakka McLaren was on full
pressure over the leading No. 17 WRT Audi but was having to worry
with the No. 90 AKKA-ASP Mercedes and the No. 84 HTP
Mercedes right behind as a single mistake could give the position
or bring chaos again. Although defending his position well, Andrew
Watson had to bring the No. 59 to serve a drive through, losing
the position in the rulebook as the McLaren 650S GT3 was out
of position on the formation lap at the start line.
Since the penalty for the No. 59 things
kept the same in the top 3 pack as the No. 17 was leading the Nos. 90
and 84, and so it was after the pit window, with Stuart Leonard
having to continue the good work of Robin Frijns in the Audi while
Leonard's former team mate Michael Meadows needed to keep pushing as
Raffaele Marciello did in the No. 90 and Franck Perera took the wheel
of the No. 84 from Maximilian Buhk.
From the pit window end on the 35th
minute the Meadows was gaining on Leonard and eliminating the 2.5
second gap between them, and while that the gap between the No. 98
ROWE BMW and the No. 27 Lazarus Lamborghini got sim0ply too close as
they had some contact that ended with Gustavo Yacaman in the No. 27
pushing Markkus Palttala in the No. 98 to a spin, and this resulted
in a stop and go penalty for “Mr. Yac Attack”.
The second and third placed Mercedes
weren't gaining on the No. 17 Audi and worse than that, the No. 2 WRT
Audi and the No. 75 ISR Audi were closing in and joining a multi-car
podium battle. To spice things up, the No. 84 received a drive
through penalty in the highest point of Perera's charge due to the
engine being started while the Mercedes AMG GT3 was still in the
jacks during the pit stop, leaving Meadows as a lone Mercedes trapped
between three Audis.
The track itself didn't give many
opportunities to a change of position between the top 4 but once the
No. 2 started attacking the No. 90 in the final moments, it created
the gap for Leonard to breathe more and bring the No. 17 to the win,
a very welcome first in the season for WRT.
The Silver Cup was dominated by David
Fumanelli and Lewis Williamson in the No. 42 Strakka McLaren, while
the No. 39 Kessel TP12 Ferrari counted with a penalty for the No. 333
Rinaldi Ferrari to win in the Pro-Am Cup.
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