Laurens Vanthoor has been crowned 2016 FIA GT World Cup Champion in the most bizarre circumstances at Macau. The race earlier today, in which less than two competitive laps were completed, saw Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor finish classified as the winner after flipping his car on its roof at the Macau Grand Prix in his WRT Audi R8. His win, following his Qualifying Race victory on Saturday, gave Audi the FIA GT World Cup Manufacturer’s Trophy for the first time since 2013.
Vanthoor was crowned victor ahead of Keven Estre’s Manthey Porsche and defending champion Maro Engel’s Mercedes AMG GT3 after officials ruled the race result would be decided on the penultimate lap of the race prior to the red flag for Vanthoor’s incident.
“I’m happy and relieved about not having been injured,” said Vanthoor. “My accident happened in one of the fastest track sections. I made a mistake and caused an accident, and won nonetheless. I’m still not quite sure about how to rate this victory.”
Vanthoor emerged unhurt from the upended wreckage of his Audi after it mounted the barrier and flew backwards upside down at the highspeed Mandarin corner to learn he’d been ruled the winner of a race he thought he’d lost.
He had led just four laps of a scheduled 18 lap event, three of them behind the safety car and only one of them truly competitive.
Vanthoor had started from pole position and ledf the first lap from the Porsches of Earl Bamber and Kevin Estre and the Mercedes-Benz of Maro Engel.
But a crash into the fence at Fisherman’s Bend by back marker Ricky Capo (BMW) brought out a safety car and ultimately led to a lengthy race suspension as track workers repaired the safety fence onto the harbor side straight.
In a time certain race Bamber in second place was able to learn that race stewards had penalised him five seconds for moving in front of Engel just after the start.
On the restart, with just 18minutes of racing remaining , Bamber forced his way past Vanthoor, desperate to open a gap to negate his penalty.
But Vanthoor hit an inside kerb in his pursuit of Bamber launching his Audi into the fence and then upending it. By the time his car had been cleared there was just four minutes of racing remaining and officials declared the race without a second restart.
Bamber who was ahead when the race was stopped dropped to fourth with the inclusion of his penalty.
Hong Kong driver Adderly Fong (Bentley Continental GT3) won the Non-Manufacturers’ Championship after repairing his car from a Saturday incident.
