The #17 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS of Laurens Vanthoor, Stéphane Ortelli and Stuart Leonard took the win in a dramatic and at times frustrating Sepang 12 Hours after a race interrupted twice by the weather with a pair of red flag periods after heavy rain.
It was an emotional win, Vanthoor returning after injury, Leonard in his first race in an Audi R8 and Ortelli in his final start as an Audi Factory driver,
That left the fight at the front of the field very close with the battle for the lead changing for the final time 30 minutes from the end of the race as Vanthoor retook the lead he had lost at the final pit stops from the similar #150 WRT Audi of Christopher Mies. The #17 car would pull away for an 8 second win to leave Mies, and team-mates Enzo Ide and Christopher Haase in second place at the flag with the third Audi, this the #16 Phoenix car of Niki Mayr-Melnhof Nicki Thiim and Markus Winkelhock that had led for much of the race, but lost its advantage with the red flag interruptions, completing the overall podium.
Sepang’s reputation for extreme heat and humidity had the additional challenge of heavy and extended torrential rainfall poured into the mix with two cloud bursts forcing race control to interrupt the competition for an hour and 46 minutes and subsequently for another 53 minutes.
Before then though the strong Ferrari challenge had faded though both the #11 Singha Motorsport Team 458 and the #1 Clearwater Racing cars led during the opening laps of the race. The latter lost a lot of time after contact with a backmarker and a double puncture, eventually retiring with too much damage.
The Singha Ferrari was among the front-runners but rapidly dropped down the order when the rain made its appearance after four hours of racing eventually finishing in eighth place.
Much closer to the Audis was the #55 FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren, which only lost contact with the leading pack in the final stages of the race. It still won the Pro-Am category, finishing fourth overall, just in front of the first of the Bentleys, the #8 M-Sport Continental.
The polesitter in the GTC class, the #69 Team Fydis Aylezo Lamborghini, had an unfortunate opening hour of the race, when the car caught fire during the first pitstop. The Huracan was able to continue, but lost a lot of time. The other Lamborghini, the #23 Giti Topspeed Racing car took the lead and dominated the rest of the race, and eventually won with a five lap advantage over the #7 Team NZ Motorsport Porsche and the #26 B-Quick Racing Audi.
The #86 Wing Hin Motorsport Toyota GT876 took the win in the Touring Car class.
Stephane Ratel: “I’ve said in the past that I wanted the Sepang 12 Hours to become the Asian equivalent of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, but maybe I should have been careful with what I wished for! Seriously now, the Sepang 12 Hours has been an excellent prologue to the 2016 Intercontinental GT Challenge, it is clear that we can bring high-level GT3 racing to the four corners of the planet.”
Laurens Vanthoor (#17 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi): “I have had a difficult time after my accident in Misano, but the fact that I had to work hard to get back into shape gave me extra motivation to do well here. I also wanted to win here because it was probably the last race with my friend Stéphane Ortelli. It was a hard race, but our efforts paid off.”
Christopher Mies (#150 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi): “Because we had lost some time during the penultimate pitstop, the only way to get back in front of Laurens was to not change tyres during the last pitstop. We took the lead, but I knew it would be almost impossible to hold on to that first place. Still, we brought a good show for the fans.”
Markus Winkelhock (#16 Phoenix Racing Audi): “I am pretty disappointed, because we came here to win. We built a great advantage, twice, but we lost it due to the safety car-interventions. Than there was a misunderstanding over the pitstop under safety car, and that is where we lost our last chances to take the win.”
James Munro (#23 Giti Topspeed Racing Lamborghini, 1st GTC): “We did not expect to be this competitive. Our main goal was to show the strengths of the Giti Tyres and they proved to be excellent for endurance racing, lasting longer than our competitors. Once we were in the lead, we focused on our race, to be sure to make no mistakes in the difficult conditions.”
Kenny Lee (#86 Wing Hin Motorsport Toyota, 1st Touring Car): “As a Malaysian team we have some experience with driving in the rain, but never have we experienced conditions like these. With the spray thrown up by the GT3-cars the visibility was very low. It was unfortunate that the Subaru had problems early on, but it gave us the possibility to control the race and give the quicker GT-cars enough room to get past. We are all very proud to have won our category in our home race, and we are looking forward to be back next year.”
Vincent Vosse (Belgian Audi Club Team WRT team manager): “I am obviously very happy to take the double here. This is the result of great teamwork. I especially want to thank Stéphane Ortelli. Not only for this race, but for all he has done for the team. He’s been with us since the beginning, and he still is a very competitive driver, who still has the same hunger to win. I am convinced that he will be on the top step of the podium many more times.”
