The last race of the 2017 Blancpain
GT Sprint Cup season at Nürburgring will
be remembered by going against all the odds as the top two contenders
were wiped out the way for a WRT win with Robin Frijns
and Stuart Leonard, which kept both crowns in Belgium
and perfect streak of WRT by simply having all the teams' titles
since 2013.
The start was pretty much a safe one,
with the No. 84 HTP Mercedes keeping the
lead while the No. 19 GRT Lamborghini was
in second, although when ending the first lap the No. 19 was pushed
to the gravel and was demoted to fifth as the No. 8
M-SPORT Bentley was in second and the No. 5
WRT Audi was in third, the best championship scenario
for Maximilian Buhk and Franck Perera.
Things then became interesting for the
No. 5 as the second-placed Bentley received a drive through penalty
for controversially forcing the No. 19 GRT Lamborghini off-track. To
raise the benefits for the new second-placed car, the No. 75 ISR Audi
had an engine failure with 20 minutes of racing and a Full Course
Yellow was brought and then converted in a Safety Car situation.
With 25 minutes the restart came but
the No. 5 wasn't even able to close in, so WRT opted to bring it
early to the pit stop. Five minutes later it the No. 84 in the pits,
and a bark work there cost the lead position as the No. 5 passed,
with a bigger gap than when the Mercedes was in front. This was also
the time when WRT boss Vincent Vosse was called to talk with the
stewards about a possible unsafe release, which would bring a
penalty, but with 20 minutes to go the right left tire of the No. 84
HTP Mercedes has blown up, leaving a disheartened Maximilian Buhk
walking away as their title chances gone away.
With the other championship contenders
effectively out of range, WRT was dominating the field with the Audis
No. 5, No. 17 and No. 2 for a brief time as the lead car was
penalized with a drive-through for pit stop infringement, with
another turnaround giving the championship lead to the No. 17 pair of
Stuart Leonard and Robin Frijns. It didn't take long for the No. 17
to leave the No. 2 behind with the No. 19 GRT Lamborghini leading a
huge chase pack, and from that it just a cruise to the finish for
Robin Frijns to bring the car home.
Fabian Schiller and Jules
Szymkowiak again brought the No. 85 HTP Mercedes to a Silver
Cup win Daniel Keilwitz and Alexander
Matschull completed the Pro-Am Cup sweep with
the No. 333 Rinaldi Ferrari.
Frijns and Leonard finished the Sprint
Cup season with 82 points as champions while Markus Winkelhock and
Will Stevens finished in second with 74, followed by Buhk and Perera
with the same 68 points of yesterday and Mirko Bortolotti and
Christian Engelhardt with 67 points. WRT scored a 1-2 in the teams'
standings as the Belgian Audi Club WRT side finished with 106 points
and the Team WRT had 97, with Grässer Racing coming in third with 91
points. The other titles up for grabs stayed with the class leader as
the Pro-Am Cup champions were Daniel Keilwitz, Alexander Matschull
and the Rinaldi Racing squad.
Now there's only the 3 Hours of
Barcelona to end not only the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup but also the
Blancpain GT Series as a whole on October 1st.
PHOTO: Audi Sport
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