Algarve Blancpain: Bleekemolen/Proczyk's Grasser Lamborghini wins

The Lamborghini lockout on the front row was reversed by the time the cars reached the first corner, as Grasser driver Bleekemolen moved past polesitter Tomas Enge's G-Drive-branded Reiter car when the lights went out.

On a clumsy opening lap, Giorgio Pantano's Bhaitech McLaren spun the Phoenix Audi of Alessandro Latif, while the two ROAL BMWs collided, as Stefano Colombo hit Alex Zanardi at Turn 8.

Ultimately it was Colombo who came off worse, beached in the gravel, and a safety car was required to remove the stricken Z4.

Enge was struggling in second place, and eventually lost control at the challenging final corner, dropping him back to fifth place just before the pitstop window opened.

The championship leading HTP Mercedes of Max Buhk and Max Gotz opted to make an early pitstop, and while others battled they capitalised on a clear track to emerge in second position once the window closed.

It was then a straight fight between Proczyk in the leading Lamborghini and the charging Gotz in the Mercedes.

Gotz made one attempt into the Turn 5 hairpin, but Proczyk held his nerve and took victory, reducing the gap at the top of the championship to 16 points.

Completing the podium was Enzo Ide and Rene Rast, after a quiet second stint saw them finish four seconds adrift of the race leader, with their WRT team-mates Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos a further 10s behind them.

The second HTP Mercedes of Sergei Afanasiev and Stef Dusseldorp finished fifth.

The pole car of Enge and Roman Rusinov eventually finished in sixth place, ahead of the top two cars in the Silver Cup, the WRT Audi of Mateusz Lisowski and Vincent Abril and HTP's Wolf and Stolz.

The two BMW Team Brazil cars completed the top 10, with Caca Bueno and Sergio Jimenez edging out their team-mates Nelson Piquet and Matheus Stumpf by just half a second at the flag.

Results - 32 laps:                                         
                                                           
Pos Drivers                  Team/Car              Time/Gap
1.  Proczyk/Bleekemolen      Grasser Lamborghini           
2.  Gotz/Buhk                HTP Mercedes            0.819s
3.  Ide/Rast                 WRT Audi                4.061s
4.  Ramos/Vanthoor           WRT Audi               10.658s
5.  Afanasiev/Dusseldorp     HTP Mercedes           12.626s
6.  Rusinov/Enge             G-Drive Lamborghini    16.422s
7.  Abril/Lisowski           WRT Audi               23.966s
8.  Wolf/Stolz               HTP Mercedes           25.688s
9.  Bueno/Jimenez            Team Brasil BMW        29.904s
10. Stumpf/Piquet Jr         AutOrlando BMW         30.419s
11. Basseng/Latif            Phoenix Audi           31.190s
12. Pentus/van der Drift     Bhaitech McLaren       31.987s
13. Jager/Baumann            Schubert BMW           37.104s
14. Zanardi                  ROAL BMW               40.421s
15. Ebrahim/Toril            Fortec McLaren         44.368s
16. Halek/Landmann           Grasser Lamborghini  1m08.757s
17. Hamprecht/Ortelli        WRT Audi                -1 lap
18. Coimbra/Silva            Sports Mercedes         -1 lap
                                                           
Retirements:                                               
                                                           
    Mayr-Melnhof/Winkelhock  Phoenix Audi            7 laps
    Onidi/Pantano            Bhaitech McLaren        2 laps
    Mora/Pinheiro            Sports Mercedes         2 laps
    Fumanelli/Colombo        ROAL BMW                 1 lap