SUMMARY: After an unusual call for a second formation lap after the race had seemingly already got underway, a first-lap collision eliminated several frontrunners. Once the order settled down, however, polesitter Bortolotti still led in the #63 Lamborghini.
Before the race got underway, the second-place qualifying #23 Nissan was given a five-place grid penalty for failing to follow proper procedure returning to the pits under a red flag in qualifying. This meant Chiyo started the car from seventh and the HTP Bentley of Vincent Abril was promoted to the front row alongside the #63 Lamborghini. As expected, the #46 Marc VDS BMW started from the pitlane after its overnight engine change.
After the race seemed to be underway for several corners, the yellows flew and an additional formation lap was declared. Next time around, a strong start from Abril saw him take the lead into the first corner. Guy Smith also took off well from fourth in the works #7 Bentley as polesitter Bortolotti was shuffled down to third.
But an accident on the first lap involving several front-running cars (the #333 Ferrari of Norbert Siedler, the #58 McLaren of Rob Bell, above, and the #8 Bentley of Maxime Soulet) brought out the safety car, and amidst the melee Bortolotti got back up to second.
Some cars ahead of the trio appeared to brake slightly earlier than expected in avoidance of cars ahead going into a tight corner, triggering a chain reaction and a secondary impact between the McLaren and Ferrari that left the latter with significant rear-end damage and the former with a right-rear puncture.
Bortolotti had regained the lead by the time field finished its first proper green-flag lap, with Abril second, the penalised Chiyo in third, Smith fourth and Hubert Haupt fifth in the #21 Black Falcon Mercedes. Fred Vervisch was sixth in the #75 ISR Audi and Engel seventh and first in Pro-Am in the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes. Eight and ninth were Alvaro Parente in the unscathed #59 McLaren and Pro-Am polesitter Mark Shulzhitskiy in the #22 Nissan, with Rene Rast looking threatening in 10th in the #1 WRT Audi.
By lap three, Chiyo had regained his original grid position of second and was setting fast sector times in pursuit of leader Abril. On lap six, the #6 Phoenix Racing Audi with Markus Winkelhock spun at the final chicane and had to make an early unscheduled pit stop, being backed into the garage. At the same time, the #15 Boutsen Ginion BMW lost a tyre and also had to tour round to the pits – seemingly as a result of contact with the #44 Oman Aston Martin.
Rast had the #1 WRT Audi up to eight by lap eight, while up front Chiyo was locked on to Bortolotti in front, never more than a second behind the bright green Lamborghini. These two had dropped early leader Abril by over three seconds after nearly 20 minutes of running.
There was more bad news for Von Ryan McLaren on lap 10 when Parente was forced to pit with the #59 car’s rear bumper hanging off. The car was pulled back into the garage, joining its sister the #58, while out on track this promoted Rast to seventh in the #1 Audi.
Bortolotti began to drop Chiyo slightly by lap 13, stretching the gap to 1.5 seconds, with Abril another three further back. Around the same time, the #8 Bentley of Soulet was given a stop-and-go penalty of 10 seconds for causing the collison that brought out the safety car.
Race control then announced that it was investigating itself (!) for the extra formation lap order, which already had a number of observing drivers up in arms on Twitter.
In the #46 Marc VDS BMW, Markus Palttala had made good progress after starting from the pitlane and was into the top 30 by lap 17, with 40 minutes of the race run. Engel had also been making hay in the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes, getting into fourth ahead of Smith’s and Abril’s Bentleys by the next lap.
At 15 minutes to the hour, Rast brought the #1 Audi in from seventh so WRT could check over the car in the garage, bringing an interesting charge through the field to a temporary halt. There was also a stop for the #9 BMW – Spengler getting out, Glock getting in but the car being hauled back into the garage.
Ahead of the first round of routine pitstops, Bortolotti was five seconds to the good on Chiyo, with Abril close behind in third, Engel fourth (leading Pro-Am), Smith fifth, Haupt sixth, Asmer seventh in the sole GT Russian Mercedes, Shulzhitskiy eighth, Vervisch ninth and the two ROWE Mercedes line-astern in 10th and 11th.
Stephen Errity
