Belgian Audi Club
Team WRT Press Release
The dream of
conquering the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles of the Blancpain Endurance Series for
the third year in a row could not come true:
The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
gave it all in the ‘battle’ at the Nürburgring 1000 Km, but it wasn’t enough.
The challenge was a big one, but despite a more favourable Balance of
Performance, the Audis R8 LMS ultra were not fast enough on the German track
that hosted the final and decisive round of the 2013 series, and were never in
a position to beat the top rivals. Eventually, Vanthoor-Ortelli-Sandström
finished the race 12th in the Pro Cup and Mayr-Melnhof-Frey-Castellacci in
13th, while the car that had the best options, with Stippler-Rast-Mies at the
wheel, had to retire in the last part of the race after sustaining damage in a
contact and after having been fighting in the top five throughout the entire
race. With these results, Stippler-Mies finish fifth in the Drivers’
championship, while the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT is the runner-up in the
Teams’ standings. The team is now concentrating all its efforts into the two
final rounds of the FIA GT Series, where it is also in contention for the
crowns.
There was disappointment in the Belgian squad at
the end of the long Nürburgring race, but also the awareness that little more
could have been done. Summarizing everybody’s feelings, Team WRT Principal
Vincent Vosse commented: “In the
first place, I would like to congratulate this year’s winners, Maximilian Buhk
and Team Marc VDS, who are the new Champions. They did a great job during the
entire season and deserve their success. For us, it was clear since first
practice that we are still out-powered by the competition, despite the
adjustments made to the Balance of Performance ahead of this final round. We
did what we could under the circumstances, but we knew that we were not really
in a position to fight for the titles today, regardless of the various race
incidents we had later and which are part of racing. It has been like that for
the entire season; it is frustrating when you have excellent machinery like the
Audi R8, great drivers and a fantastic team that has done an outstanding job,
but there is little we could do against that. Now it’s time to look ahead and
prepare the future, and before that, we still have a championship to finish,
the FIA GT Series. We will go to the two final rounds with double motivation
and determined to fight for the titles until the last second.”
At the Nürburgring, the challenge looked extremely
difficult since free practice, with the cars not having sufficient power to
compete with their main rivals. Eventually, René Rast qualified car #13 in 6th
place in the Pro Cup, with Vanthoor 13th and Mayr-Melnhof 17th. The race, which
went on 1000 Km format (almost double distance than a normal Blancpain event)
and was held under overcast skies but on a dry track, started relatively well
for car #13, which was the one having the best chances in the Drivers’
standings, as René Rast, Frank Stippler and Christopher Mies stabilized
themselves in the top 5 and ran as high as third, fighting permanently with
their title rivals. By mid-race, unfortunately, the car was delayed by a
punctured tire. The car was climbing back through the field, when, one hour and
a half to the end, there was a contact with the ART McLaren which caused fatal
damage to the steering, forcing the German trio to retirement.
Car #1 of Stéphane Ortelli-Laurens Vanthoor-Edward
Sandström did not have the same pace and struggled in the middle of the field,
especially after the drive-through imposed to Ortelli for excessive speed
during one of the yellow flag periods. Eventually, it finished 12th.
Car #2, entrusted to Niki Mayr-Melnhof, Rahel Frey
and Francesco Castellacci, who was making its debut with the Belgian Audi Club
Team WRT, was having a consistent race until, shortly after the 2-hour mark,
the Austrian was hit by a Porsche and sent into a spin which ended with the R8
stuck in the gravel. It could only be brought back to the track by rescue
vehicles and lost significant time in the venture, concluding the race in P13.
The very short journey back home comes welcome to
team members, as there is little time to re-prepare the cars ahead of the next
commitment: round 5 of the FIA GT Series is taking place next weekend at
Navarra, in Spain.
Blancpain
Endurance Series - Round 5
Nürburgring, Germany
21-22 September 2013
Race Results
(Pro):
1. Schneider-Buhk-Götz (Mercedes SLS) 178 laps in
6h00h46m354
2. Leinders-Buurman-Martin (BMW Z4) + 18s298
3. Parisy-Leclerc-Soucek (McLaren MP4 12C) + 42s721
4. Skryabin-Bobbi-Pierguidi (Ferrari F458)
+1m24s294
5. Hoshino-Kane-Dumbreck (Nissan GT-R) + 1 lap
12.
Sandström-Ortelli-Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS) + 3 laps
13.
Mayr-Melnhof-Frey-Castellacci (Audi R8 LMS) + 5 laps
DNF
Rast-Stippler-Mies (Audi R8 LMS) (139 laps)
Drivers’
Championship Final Standings (Pro) after Round 5 of 5
1. Buhk (Mercedes SLS) - 81 points
2. Schneider-Götz (Mercedes SLS) - 71
Martin-Leinders-Buurman (BMW Z4) - 71
4. Ramos-Rigon-Zampieri
(Ferrari F458) - 50
5. Stippler-Mies (Audi R8 LMS ultra)
- 48
9. Sandström (Audi
R8 LMS ultra) - 31
15.
Ortelli-Vanthoor-Rast (Audi R8 LMS ultra) - 24
18. Lotterer
- 21
32.
Halliday-Frey-Mayr-Melnhof - 4
Fässler-Ekström
Teams’
Championship Final Standings (Pro) after Round 5 of 5
1. Marc VDS - 90 points
2. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT - 60
3. Kessel Racing - 54
4. JRM Motorsport - 51
5. HTP Motorsport - 49
Photo credit: Audi Sport Communication / Media
