Saturday, July 5, 2014

Blancpain Sprint Series: Third and fourth for Audi in Zandvoort qualifying race


By Tarek Ramchani

The Audi teams secured fine results in Blancpain Sprint Series qualifying race at Zandvoort in very wet conditions.

The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT finished the 1-hour and rainy sprint race in third place. The car in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos recovered very well after a difficult mandatory pit-stop. The two drivers finished not far from race winning Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 and the second placed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Their team-mates at Belgian Audi Club Team WRT René Rast and Enzo Ide were right behind in a fourth place driving the #2 Audi R8 LMS ultra.

The WRT run G-Drive Racing #3 Audi R8 LMS ultra finished the race in ninth place. Stéphane Ortelli and Roman Rusinov started from pit-lane and charged back to enter the Top 10.


Best of the Phoenix Audis was the #5 R8 LMS driven by Marc Basseng and Alessandro Lattif. They finished in tenth overall and second within the Pro-Am Trophy.

The #4 Audi from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was eleventh with drivers Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowski winning the Silver-Cup Trophy.

Unfortunately, the #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra from Phoenix Racing did not finish the race. Markus Winkelhock went off track at lap twelve and was forced to retire, the German Audi driver sharing the car with Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr-Melnhof

Qualifying race results can be seen here.

Photo credit: Blancpain GT Series