Blancpain Sprint: Bleekemolen and Proczyk win first Zandvoort race

The qualifying race turned into a two-lap sprint to the chequered flag after the second of the safety car periods, Proczyk fending off the advances of Maximilian Gotz's HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

Proczyk crossed the line in his Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Gallardo FLII just under half a second clear of the Mercedes Gotz shared with Maximilian Buhk.

"Hari did a great job - he and Maxi were much quicker than everyone else in the wet," said Bleekemolen.

"I hope it is not so exciting at the end tomorrow, because that was a bit too much."
Bleekemolen and Proczyk, who won both races at Brands Hatch in May, led all but one lap of the 60-minute race.

Local driver Bleekemolen, who had put the car on pole position, held a narrow lead from WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor until rain started falling 10 laps into the race.

The Lamborghini driver was able to extend his lead to nearly seven seconds before the safety car came out just before the pitstop window opened.

Grasser sent Proczyk out in the lead, while the HTP Mercedes vaulted from fourth to second ahead of Stefan Rosina in the Reiter Lamborghini.

Proczyk was able to edge away from Gotz after the race went green and held a lead of 1.4s when the safety car was deployed again with 15 minutes to go after an incident involving Rosina and Filip Salaquarda's Scuderia Villorba Ferrari.

Gotz briefly put his Mercedes alongside the Lamborghini on the final lap but decided to settle for second ahead of tomorrow's full-points main race.

The Audi R8 LMS ultra Vanthoor shared with Cesar Ramos recovered to third after dropping to eighth courtesy of a slow pitstop.

Ramos was up to fourth before the final safety car and then passed team-mate Enzo Ide, who shared the second WRT Audi with Rene Rast, into the first corner when the race went green.

Fifth and sixth places were taken by two newcomers to the series: the Schubert BMW team claimed fifth with Dominik Baumann and Thomas Jager; and the Herberth Porsche squad sixth with Jaap van Lagen and Robert Renauer.

Results - 30 laps:

Pos  Drivers                   Team/Car                 Time/Gap
 1.  Proczyk/Bleekemolen       Grasser Lamborghini  1h01m45.733s
 2.  Buhk/Gotz                 HTP Mercedes              +0.408s
 3.  Ramos/Vanthoor            WRT Audi                  +2.245s
 4.  Ide/Rast                  WRT Audi                  +3.290s
 5.  Baumann/Jager             Schubert BMW              +5.263s
 6.  Renauer/van Lagen         Herberth Porsche          +5.480s
 7.  Lloyd/Pentus              Bhaitech McLaren         +15.331s
 8.  Landmann/Halek            Grasser Lamborghini      +20.376s
 9.  Rusinov/Ortelli           G-Drive Audi             +28.327s
10.  Latif/Basseng             Phoenix Audi             +29.095s
11.  Abril/Lisowski            WRT Audi               +1m27.882s
12.  Stumpf/Brito              Brazil BMW                 +1 lap
13.  Pantano/Onidi             Bhaitech McLaren           +1 lap
14.  Ebrahim/Toril             Fortec Mercedes            +1 lap
15.  Colombo/Fumanelli         ROAL BMW                   +1 lap
16.  Rosina/Kox                Reiter Lamborghini        +8 laps
17.  Salaquarda/Montermini     Villorba Ferrari          +8 laps

Retirements:

     Mayr-Melnhof/Winkelhocke  Phoenix Audi              12 laps
     Dusseldorp/Afanasiev      HTP Mercedes              12 laps
     Jimenez/Bueno             Brazil BMW                 4 laps