By Tarek Ramchani
A great Blancpain Sprint Series qualifying race for the Audi brand and the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in Baku. A brilliant race victory and two cars on the podium and a total of four cars within the Top 6 showing how strong the Audi R8 LMS ultra is in the streets of the Azerbaijan capital.
Race victory went to the #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos after a very eventful event. The car qualified in second place yesterday and had an impressive pace in the 1-hour race. The winning Audi had a great fight for race win the second placed Aston Martin V12 Vantage from Beechdean AMR.
Third placed went to the #9 Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Stéphane Ortelli and Stéphane Richelmi. Their team-mates René Rast and Enzo Ide finished in impressive fourth place, they started the race from the ninteenth place.
Best of the Phoenix Racing entries was the #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra. Niki Mayr-Melnhof and Markus Winkelhock ended in a strong sixth place, they started the race from position twelfth on the grid.
Bad luck hit the #4 Audi from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and the #777 Audi from Prosperia C.Abt Racing, both cars were forced to retire.
The main race will follow next, the starting grid is based on qualifying race results. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos will start from pole position.
Photo credit: Belgian Audi Club
