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Zolder FIA GT: Vanthoor and Ortelli give WRT Audi another win

The Belgian WRT Audi squad notched up its second consecutive win in the FIA GT Series with victory in the opening race on home ground at Zolder

Laurens Vanthoor and Stephane Ortelli followed up the team's success in the main race on the opening weekend at Nogaro by triumphing aboard their Audi R8 LMS ultra.

The WRT duo finished just over 10 seconds up on the pole-winning Reiter Lamborghini LP560 driven by Stefan Rosina and Peter Kox.

Vanthoor took second in the opening moments of the one-hour race and then spent the first 12 laps behind Rosina in the Lamborghini.

The Belgian moved into the lead when the Slovakian driver made a mistake on the exit of Turn 1, while a quick turnaround during the mandatory pitstops gave WRT a clear victory.

Vanthoor said: "I was better on the brakes, but the Lambo was better under acceleration each time, which made it difficult to pass.

"I put him under some pressure and, lucky for me, he made a mistake."

Kox managed to pass the second WRT Audi, which Nikolas Mayr-Melnhof had just taken over from Rene Rast, on its out-lap to secure second place.

Mayr-Melnhof held off a train of four cars led by Andreas Zuber's Sebastien Loeb Racing McLaren MP4-12C to secure the final spot on the podium.

The McLaren, which was started by Mike Parisy, ended up fourth ahead of Edward Standstrom and Frank Stippler, winners in the main race at Nogaro for WRT.

The Sebastien Loeb Racing McLaren that Alvaro Parente had qualified on the front row did not feature.

The car started from the back following a minor technical infringement and then Parente was penalised for avoidable contact, before team owner Sebastien Loeb retired the car in the closing stages.

Results - 39 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                      Time/Gap
 1.  Ortelli/Vanthoor    WRT Audi                  1h01m06.512s
 2.  Kox/Rosina          Reiter Lamborghini           + 10.332s
 3.  Mayr-Melnhof/Rast   WRT Audi                     + 15.928s
 4.  Zuber/Parisy        Loeb McLaren                 + 16.427s
 5.  Sandstrom/Stippler  WRT Audi                     + 17.355s
 6.  Simonsen/Afanasiev  Gravity Charouz Mercedes     + 17.846s
 7.  Day/Buhk            Gravity Charouz Mercedes     + 18.666s
 8.  Ide/Kumpen          Phoenix Audi                 + 29.446s
 9.  Salaquarda/Onidi    AF Ferrari                   + 40.709s
10.  Seyffarth/Chandhok  Seyffarth Mercedes           + 41.157s
11.  Khodair/Bueno       Brazil BMW                   + 43.268s
12.  Proczyk/Baumann     Grasser Lamborghini        + 1m01.771s
13.  Vieira/Campanico    Novadriver Audi            + 1m16.726s
14.  Ricci/Stumpf        Rodrive Ford               + 1m29.870s
15.  Shulzhitskiy/Reip   RJN Nissan                     + 1 lap
16.  Stovicek/Charouz    Gravity Charouz Mercedes      + 5 laps

Retirements:

     Loeb/Parente        Loeb McLaren                   33 laps
     Ordonez/Buncombe    RJN Nissan                     33 laps
     Zonta/Jimenez       Brazil BMW                     29 laps
     Rosa/Bonifacio      Seyffarth Mercedes             22 laps

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