The 2018 Blancpain GT Series season started with a V10 battle between Audis and a Lamborghini, and despite an impressive showing from WRT, it was the No. 63 Grässer Racing Lamborghini of Christian Engelhardt and Mirko Bortolotti which took the first win, thanks to flawless drives and an impressive pitwork.
Dries Vanthoor was quick to set his place, holding the lead in favor of the No. 2 WRT Audi while the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini led the field in pursuit. Christian Engelhardt soon saw his No. 63 car surrounded by Audis as the No. 1 WRT car was in third and the No. 66 Attempto Audi was in fourth.
While that, an early off-track trip cost the race for the No. 14 Emil Frey Lexus as lots of grass and dirt compromised the cooling system, while the sister No. 114 car was struggling to go past 16th in the standings.
The first half of racing had the No. 63 mostly in the defensive stance as the No. 2 was slowly opening the gap, with the No. 1 coming right behind looking for room to overtake, which didn’t come. In a narrow track like Zolder, pit times would dictate positions, and GRT outpaced WRT in their own game, putting the No. 63 ahead of the No. 2 by a tiny margin.
After the pit stops it was Will Stevens in the No. 2 chasing Mirko Bortolotti in the No. 63, and with their paces being very similar, the Audi couldn’t recover the lost time. In fact, Stevens turned into defensive mode as Christopher Mies was clocking faster laps in the No. 1 WRT Audi, just needing the space to make a move. The charge from Mies then stopped in the final minutes and the Audis settled for second and third, while Bortolotti cruised for the checkered flag and the first win in the season.
WRT took Silver Cup honors in a dominant race for the No. 3 Audi, while a close fight between the No. 39 TP12 Kessel Ferrari and the No. 11 Kessel Ferrari saw the former hold their top spot in the Pro-Am class.
PHOTO: Blancpain GT Series
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