Stuart Leonard and Frederic Vervisch gave Belgian Audi Club Team WRT their second victory of the day at Brands Hatch as the second round of the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup concluded on Sunday.
Vervisch led the race into turn one and the #17 machine was able to stay in front even when the Belgian handed over the driving duties to co-driver Leonard, although the Briton was closely followed home by the sister #1 machine of Christopher Mies and Alex Riberas for their second runners-up spot of the day.
Riberas’ challenge faded in the closing laps as the #1 was handed its final warning for track limits, although the #17 was only 0.586 seconds clear of the sister car when the chequered flag fell, while the #66 Attempto Racing Audi of Steijn Schothorst and Kelvin van der Linde recovered from their late race problems in race one to take the final spot on the podium.
The leading non-Audi was the fourth placed #88 AKKA ASP Team Mercedes of Raffaele Marciello and Michael Meadows despite the former running across the gravel on the opening lap from the front row of the grid and hitting the barrier on the way into the pit lane.
Luckily, Meadows was able to get into the car and bring it home, albeit 12.646 seconds off the race winning Audi as he battled with an unbalanced Mercedes-AMG GT3, with the Briton finishing just ahead of the #63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini of Christian Engelhart and Mirko Bortolotti.
The #87 AKKA ASP Team Mercedes of Nicolas Jamin and Felix Serralles claimed sixth, well clear of the #82 Grasser Racing Lamborghini of Loris Hezemans and Franck Perera, while the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Simon Gachet and Christopher Haase took eighth.
Emil Frey Lexus Racing once again found themselves inside the top ten, with the #114 of Norbert Siedler and Stephane Ortelli claiming ninth, while tenth went to the leading Silver Cup class entry of Andrew Watson and Lukas Moraes in the #37 3Y Technology BMW.
After being disqualified from race one, the #37 finished second on the road in its class but was promoted to the victory after the #90 AKKA ASP Team Mercedes duo of Jack Manchester and Nico Bastian were penalised after the former caused a first lap clash that saw the two Team Parker Racing Bentley’s and the SMP Racing by AKKA ASP Mercedes retire.
Finishing just outside the top ten was the leading Pro-Am Cup class finishers, with the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi of Nyls Stievenart and Markus Winkelhock holding off the challenge of race one class winners Piti Bhirombhakdi and Carlo van Dam in the #39 TP 12 – Kessel Racing Ferrari.
3Y Technology won the Silver Cup class at Brands Hatch – Credit: SRO / Dirk Bogaerts Photography
