By Tarek Ramchani
Portimao is hosting round 5 of the FIA GT1 World Championship this weekend. The WRT team did very well in the qualifying race.
A very sunny and hot qualifying race saw the #33 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by factory drivers Oliver Jarvis and Frank Stippler ending in a fine third place finish. The car started from position seven, but later with Jarvis moving into the race he was able to fight for top spots. A perfect pit stop from the Belgian Audi Club crew sent them back on track in second right behind the leading Mercedes-Bens SLS AMG GT3. Stippler later battled hard with a BMW Z4 GT3 for second, in the end the German driver landed in a very promising third place.
The sister #32 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Laurens Vanthoor and Stephane Ortelli had a very hard race. The car started from position twelve and wasn't able to fight for top positions. In the end Stephane Ortelli could only bring the car home in tenth overall. For tomorrow's main "Championship Race" both cars will start as they finished today. Oretlli and Vanthoor are the best ranked Audi driver in the overall championship standings. They will have to fight hard to improve and score vital points. The car today proved to be one of the strongest in the Portuguese weekend. We wish the best of luck for the WRT team to have strong results tomorrow.
Photo credit: Patrick Hecq / Belgian Audi Club
More information:
Belgian Audi Club official website
WRT official website
FIA GT1 World Championship official website
