The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT triumphs twice at home in Zolder with local heroes Vanthoor-Frijns

The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT triumphs twice at home in Zolder with local heroes Vanthoor-Frijns

07/06/2015

It’s done: this time, the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT managed to win the Main Race at the home round of the Blancpain Sprint Series in Zolder. The success came in double dose, in a weekend marked by tropical temperatures, as the two young guns and local heroes of the team, Laurens Vanthoor and Robin Frijns, swept the floor by winning also the Qualifying Race on Saturday, after having conquered the pole. The perfect weekend allows them to extend their lead in the Sprint overall standings, as does the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in the Teams’ rankings. The other cars weren’t that lucky, with an accident putting an end to the weekend of Stippler-Nash at the start of Race 1 and seriously troubling Ortelli-Richelmi’s one as well. The Monegasque duo only took a 10^th in Race 2, with Mies-Ide, 9^th in Race-1, retiring in Race-2.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse clearly enjoyed the outcome of the weekend: “I am very happy with what achieved by car #1”, he commented, “and it’s nice to have a weekend like that at our home race, something we couldn’t achieve in the past. We can be proud and all of us have a special thought for J.-G. Mal-Voy, he would have loved to be celebrating with us! I said before the race that we were aiming at improving our results as a team. That did not happen, as the three other cars, despite having an excellent pace, were not successful, for various reasons. That remains our next objective, apart from repairing the damage on the cars!”

Temperatures way above 30°C welcomed the participants since free practice sessions, which showed the Audis R8 LMS ultra in very good form. In qualifying, Vanthoor confirmed by taking the pole, although admitting: "I nearly crashed twice in my fast lap, proof that I really had to give my all to set this time. So it certainly was not that easy." With Richelmi qualifying fourth and Stippler 7^th, the Belgian Audi Club made an almost perfect group result, if it hadn’t been for the issues hitting car #2 that saw its efforts ruined by electrical problems. The team decided to change the engine altogether, which forced Mies-Ide to start from last row.

In the Qualifying race, fortunes could not be more mixed. While Vanthoor took a perfect start and the lead of the race, Richelmi and Stippler were caught in a start accident with the McLaren of Bell, who hit Richelmi sending him sideways against his team mate. Race was unfortunately over for the #3 and #4. In the lead, Vanthoor brought his advantage to over 3 seconds but never getting rid of Buhk and Siedler. The three cars pitted in the same laps and the professionalism of the WRT crew allowed #1 to go back to the track with a lead extended to 9 seconds. From there on, Frijns could manage the situation but not decrease much the pace. “I was informed of the Ferrari closing the gap progressively, so I kept pushing but keeping a safety margin to avoid mistakes, always risky on such a track”, explained the Dutchman, who crossed the line victorious over 5 seconds ahead of the rest. Mies-Ide, with a car functioning perfectly again, took 9^th after climbing up half of the field in the narrow track.

With car #4 having to be withdrawn following non-repairable chassis damage, only three cars took the start of the Main Race on Sunday, which saw similar warm conditions and similar scenario. Robin Frijns took a perfect start on #1, while behind him the main rivals, the Rinaldi Ferrari and the Bentley, got in contacts. The Dutchman built up a gap of about 10 seconds, which made life almost easy for Laurens Vanthoor after a perfect pit stop, the Belgian bringing home the car in P1 without any alert. “A perfect weekend, we couldn’t ask for more”, said in stereo the two youngsters. The two Stéphanes, Ortelli and Richelmi, finished 10^th after a consistent race disturbed by a 30-second post-race penalty for a race incident, while car #2 had a rather lively afternoon. From P9 in the grid, Mies became third in the first lap, but was later inflicted a drive-through for a jump start. He served the sanction when he was running 2^nd, after winning a nice duel with a BMW, and the car rejoined in P16. Enzo Ide was trying to climb up positions when he went out into the gravel at one of the Canal corners, remaining stuck there for a couple of laps. He eventually made it to the pits but just to retire.

The team is now heading home to prepare the 1000 km race at the Paul Ricard, in two weeks, which constitutes the third round of the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Blancpain Sprint Series - Round 3

Zolder, Belgium

5-7 June 2015

Qualifying Race results:

1. 1. Vanthoor-Frijns (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 39 laps in 1h00m25s794
2. Seefried-Siedler (Ferrari F458) - 5s563
3. Abril-Buhk (Bentley Continental) - 12s707
4. Mayr Melnhof-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS u.) - 19s126
5. Brito-Abreu (BMW Z4) - 24s360
6. 9. Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS ultra) - 51s899 (8^th in Pro Cup)

DNF Richelmi-Ortelli (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 1 lap (accident)

DNF Nash-Stippler (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 0 laps (accident)

Main Race Race results:

1. Vanthoor-Frijns (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 39 laps in 1h00m26s711

2. Buhk-Abril (Bentley Continental) - 9s944

3. Brito-Abreu (BMW Z4) - 13s609

4. Bueno-Jimenez (BMW Z4) - 14s041

5. Mayr Melnhof-Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS ultra) - 19s289

11. Richelmi-Ortelli (Audi R8 LMS ultra) - 52s635 (10th in Pro Cup)

DNF Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS ultra) 26 laps (accident)

DNS Nash-Stippler (Audi R8 LMS ultra)

Provisional Drivers’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 3 of 7:

1. Vanthoor-Frijns 68 points

2. Abreu-Brito 41

3. Ortelli-Richelmi 34

Abril-Buhk 34

5. Martin-D.Müller 31

7. Mies-Ide 19

12. Nash-Stippler 10

Provisional Teams’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 3 of 7:

1. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 95 points

2. BMW Sports Trophy Team Brazil 72

3. Bentley HTP 40

4. Phoenix Racing 33

5. Attempto Racing 26

ISR 26