A collection of penalties after the mandatory pit stops shuffled the order and eliminated the favorites in the Race 2 of the Blancpain GT Sprint Cup at Zolder, with Kelvin van der Linde and Steijn Schothorst bringing the No. 66 Attempto Racing Audi to victory.
Despite some troubles at the end of the formation lap, Mirko Bortolotti kept the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini in the lead while the No. 66 Attempto Audi took the initial mess in its favor and jumped to second. The first lap had most of the cars really close, which made up for some mechanical problems and punctures, as in the case of the No. 82 GRT Lamborghini and the No. 11 Kessel Ferrari.
While things remained pretty much quiet in the top of the table during the first half, Raffaele Marciello in the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes was putting on a show to overtake the No. 2 WRT Audi, though the lack of clear overtaking spots was making the mission hard for the Italian driver.
The factor that helped GRT in the Saturday win complicated their sweep plans on Sunday as they took more time than expected in pit lane, what favored the No. 2 WRT Audi as they jumped ahead, and the extra time stopped brought the No. 63 down to fourth position. Pro-Am Cup pit stop matters were a bit more physical as the No. 26 Saintéloc Audi bumped the No. 39 TP12 Kessel Ferrari for room in the pitlane.
In the final quarter of the race the No. 2 had a penalty for leaving the pit area in inappropriate manner as Dries Vanthoor pushed three cones aside, and the No. 63 had a penalty for personal in working area when the car was released, which opened the way to the top for the No. 66 Attempto Audi and put the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes in second. The push from the No. 26 in the No. 39 was deemed as unsafe release, so the Audi was also penalized with a drive through, which settled the race for the No. 39.
Even though the No. 88 had lots of room to push, the pace to reach the No. 66 simply wasn’t there, so it was smooth sailing for Steijn Schothorst to bring the Audi to the finish with their first victory since they switched from Lamborghini.
WRT took Silver Cup honors again with the No. 3 Audi, while the No. 39 TP12 Kessel Ferrari had the Pro-Am Cup win handed to them after the pit exit case and the penalty to the No. 26 Saintéloc Audi.
The Sprint Cup resumes activities at Brands Hatch on May 6th while the series will be back earlier with the first race of the Endurance Cup at Monza on April 22nd.
PHOTO: SRO
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