A McLaren 12C won a Blancpain Endurance Series race for only the second-ever time on Sunday as Frederic Vasseur’s ART Grand Prix team put on a dominant display at Monza. The #98 and #99 cars came home in first and third places respectively.
McLaren factory driver Alvaro Parente streaked away from the field on new tyres at the start, building up an impressive 20-second lead that never looked under serious threat during either Grégoire Demoustier or GT3 newcomer Alexandre Prémat’s subsequent stints in the car.
At the start, Parente held on to his pole position, but the big mover was Andy Meyrick in the #7 M-Sport Bentley, who leaped up to second on the run down to the first chicane. He thus demoted second-place starter Giacomo Petrobelli in the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari, but the latter was soon pressuring the Bentley hard to reclaim the place.
The #90 Villorba Corse Ferrari (with Stefano Gai at the wheel) and the #1 WRT Audi of Cesar Ramos had less impressive starts, dropping positions from their grid slots of third and fifth.
Alex Buncombe had started the #80 RJN GT Academy Nissan started way down in 31st place, but after a demon start and just eight minutes of racing, it had risen to 12th place overall. Antoine Leclerc meanwhile got the #8 Bentley into the top 10 as the first stint started to unfold.
Marco Seefried in the #333 GT Corse by Rinaldi Ferrari was another man to watch in the early stages. He first gained two places on his grid slot of seventh, then as Petrobelli outbraked himself attempting to pass Meyrick’s Bentley, the Rinaldi Ferrari was able to catch up to the back of its opposite number from Kessel. It took until lap 13 for Seefried to find a way past, eventually making it stick with a classic Monza slipstreaming move into the first chicane.
With all this action going on behind him, Parente circulated unperturbed in the lead on a fresh set of tyres and a car that seemed to be working beautifully. He was 12 seconds ahead by the time Seefried dispatched Meyrick for second, and showed no sign of being caught.
Petrobelli remained in fourth, and behind him a good battle for fifth developed between sixth-place starter Edward Sandström in the #26 Saintéloc Audi and French hotshoe Kevin Estre in the second ART McLaren. At the same time, Meyrick seemed to have reached the bottom of his bag of defensive-driving tricks: in quick succession, he was passed by Petrobelli, Sandström and Estre.
A coming-together between Phil Quaife’s Boutsen Ginion McLaren and James Nash’s WRT Audi brought an early end to both British drivers’ races. Just before the first pitstops, Buncombe gained yet another place in the #80 Nissan, taking him into the top 10, while Nico Verdonck found a way past Ramos’ Audi to finish his stint in seventh overall.
First to stop was Giacomo Petrobelli. The Kessel Ferrari was carrying some battle damage from his encounters with the Bentley, and although the car’s second driver got it and left the pits, the black 458 soon ground to a halt on the exit of the first chicane. That was the end of proceedings for last year’s Monza race-winning team.
That retirement – and a change of driver in the #333 Ferrari to the rather slow Vadim Kogay – saw the #26 Audi emerge second in the hands of Stéphane Ortelli for the next phase of the race. The Monegasque veteran turned up the wick on leader Grégoire Demoustier (who’d taken over from Parente), managing to cut the 20-second gap almost in half over the course of his stint. But a lock-up into the first chicane cost him a few seconds ahead of the second round of stops, so it was still going to take a misfortune or mistake to stop ART from winning in the end.
The Seefried/Kogay Ferrari had been leading the Pro-Am class in the first stint, but as Kogay’s increasingly chaotic time behind the wheel unfolded, the battle for class honours became a close fight between the Italian-crewed ROAL Motorsport BMW and the #50 AF Corse Ferrari, driven in this stint by Dutchman Simon Knap. Third in class at this point was the #80 RJN Nissan, with young American GT Academy winner Nick McMillen looking totally at home amongst the Blancpain regulars.
Estonian young gun Kevin Korjus was another series newcomer who was putting in a creditable performance – maintaining third in the #99 ART McLaren after taking over from Estre. There was a change of position behind him as WRT Audi new boy Marc Basseng in the #1 overhauled Harold Primat’s HTP Mercedes for fourth.
Further down the order, there was misery for Reiter Engineering as Tomas Enge suffered two punctures in quick succession on the Gallardo, putting paid to anything approaching a decent result for the German squad.
The second round of pitstops passed without major incident. Australian-based Frenchman Alex Prémat emerged in the lead of his first race in Europe for over two years at the wheel of the #98 McLaren, while Gregory Guilvert took over the #26 Audi from Ortelli, with the gap after the stops again hovering around the 20-second mark. Experienced Spaniard Andy Soucek continued the #99 car’s fast and steady run in third.
At this point, Prémat eased off the pace a little as the chequered flag drew closer. Laurens Vanthoor in the #1 Audi became the man to watch as he chased down Soucek and a potential podium finish for WRT in the closing stages. The 2013 drivers’ champion Max Buhk had taken over the HTP Mercedes from Primat at the final stop, and crossed the line in that position to put some valuable points in the bank for his title defence.
In Pro-Am, the #50 Ferrari’s challenge had faded and it was up to Stefano Colombo to bring the Italian BMW home safely. He did have one wild moment when he ran wide coming out of Ascari, but avoided disaster and crossed the line in the class lead to take an emotional home win for the team.
It was a different story for the #80 Nissan, though. Third driver Florian Strauss had kept up a decent pace, but in the process of letting the leaders through to lap him, he backed off too much and let the #90 Villorba Corse Ferrari of Stefano Gai, Andrea Rizzoli and Francesco Castellacci through to claim a class podium in its first Blancpain Endurance Series appearance.
The #35 Nissan was put out of contention very early in the race when light contact damaged the radiator. The RJN crew got the car back out after almost an hour to avail of some valuable track time. Elsewhere, both Bentleys finished in the top 10 after demonstrating encouraging pace and reliability all weekend – it can’t be very long before this outfit is challenging for podiums.
Vanthoor made a last-ditch attempt to take third from Soucek on the penultimate lap, but wasn’t close enough to try again on the final tour, so it would remain an ART 1-3 at the flag, with Saintéloc coming home in an impressive second place overall.
The gap to Prémat’s winning McLaren was just five seconds, but the canny Frenchman was definitely controlling the pace towards the end and there was little doubt this was ART Grand Prix’s race from start to finish.
The Gentlemen Trophy class was won by Pierre Ehret, Frank Schmickler and Alexander Mattschull in the GT Corse by Rinaldi 458. Second and third went to two Ferrari teams, the #41 Sport Garage and the #51 AF Corse.
Post-race quotes:
Pro Cup
Alvaro Parente (#98 ART Grand Prix McLaren): “After a good start I had the advantage that I could run in clean air, so I could quickly create a gap. After my stint, my team-mates did a perfect job in managing our lead, which resulted in a great win. We did a lot of work on the McLaren over the winter, especially on ‘calming down’ the rear of the car. That might have cost us some tenths during the qualifying lap, but during a race stint we were able to gain several seconds.”
Edward Sandström (#26 Saintéloc Racing Audi): “One week ago I was not even planning to come to Monza, but on Thursday Stéphane asked me whether I would come and join them for this race. Obviously I now am very happy that I said yes! Saintéloc Racing proved to be a great team, with the car working very well. I did a very conservative first stint, saving tyres and brakes, because I wanted to give Stéphane and Greg a car that was in good condition. A strategy that paid off.”
Andy Soucek (#99 ART Grand Prix McLaren): “We lost some 10 seconds during Kevin Korjus’ pitstop, when our car was blocked by another car. If that hadn’t happened maybe we could have managed to overtake the Audi. In the final laps, I knew Vanthoor’s Audi was quicker in the two Lesmo corners and Ascari, but I managed to create enough of a gap to remain in third position. A fabulous result for the ART GP team, with the two cars on the podium.”
Pro-Am Cup
Stefano Comandini (#43 ROAL Motorsport BMW): “You cannot believe how happy we are. Winning in Monza is something very special for an Italian team and for an Italian driver. Especially since this a bit unexpected. It is a well-known fact that this track does not really suit the BMW Z4 GT3, but thanks to three faultless stints and the fabulous work of our mechanics during the pitstops we managed to take this win. We can’t wait to go to Silverstone for the next round, a track which should suit our car better.”
Gentlemen Trophy
Frank Schmickler (#458 GT Corse by Rinaldi Ferrari): “After a beautiful opening stint it was up to us to manage the advantage we had created. Dealing with the traffic was an important part of that challenge, but I think Pierre, Alexander and I all were able to keep our heads cool and we managed not to lose too much time in the process.”
Attention now turns to the Blancpain Sprint Series, which kicks off its 2014 campaign in Nogaro, France, over the Easter weekend before heading to Brands Hatch on May 17-18. The Endurance Series is back in action at Silverstone on the following weekend, May 23-25.
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