The #33 WRT Audi of Enzo Ide and super-sub Robin Frijns took a commanding win in the Qualifying Race at Catalunya, taking the lead at Turn 1 and finishing the race 12 seconds ahead of the chasing pack. It leaves Ide with a 24-point Sprint Cup Championship lead going into the final race following his fourth win of the season, as his championship rivals Dominik Baumann and Max Buhk in the #84 Mercedes scored just one point.
In the overall Blancpain GT Series standing however, everything seemingly went right for Baumann and Buhk, as their rival Rob Bell in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren finished the race 16th following a costly drive-through penalty while running fourth. It leaves the Mercedes crew with a six-point title lead, and good grid position for the Main Race later today.
The issue for the Garage 59 crew came right at the start in the opening scramble. As the cars ran through Turn 1, the pole-sitting ISR Audi of Franck Perera slipped to sixth as Frinjs took off into the lead, followed by the #86 HTP Mercedes of Jules Szymkowiak and the Grasser Lamborghini of Mirko Bortollotti.
But the #86 HTP Mercedes gained places by going off the circuit at Turn 1, taking the #58 McLaren of Alvaro Parente with it. Both were given a drive-through for track limits, helping out the #84 HTP AMG GT3 which struggled for outright pace throughout the race. The #86 finished 10th, with the #58 further back in 16th.
“It’s never easy, the start was very important, I found the gap and went for it,” Frijns said when asked about the start. “I was pulling away quite easily at the beginning and I kept on pushing, just before I came in I had a lead of eight seconds, so Enzo got in and took it easy.”
The Bortolotti-Nicolas Pohler Huracan eventually went on to finish second with the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes of Tristain Vautier and Felix Rosenqvist ending the day third.
It looked like podium would feature the #1 Audi of Laurens Vanthoor and Frederic Vervisch though, despite the duo starting 18th following a tough qualifying. But Vanthoor was handed a 30-second penalty after the race for a collision in the final minutes of the race with the #74 ISR Audi of Marlon Stockinger for third place at Turn 5 which resulted in the Audi plummeting down the order beached in the gravel.
It nullified what would have been one of the drives of the season, as Vanthoor went on to take second place off Pohler after running side-by-side through the final complex on the final lap to make it a WRT 1-2. The penalty meant that the car finished a lowly P13 though after the duo carved up the field.
Fourth place was taken by the sole-remaining Bentley following the #7’s weekend-ending incident during practice. The #28 WRT Audi of Will Stevens and Rene Rast finished fifth with the #84 HTP Mercedes scoring a single point in sixth.
Winning the Silver Cup was the #19 Grasser Lamborghini of Michele Beretta and Luca Stolz, finishing 12th. The #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes and #55 AF Corse Ferrari won the Pro-Am and Am classes respectively.
The final race of the 2016 Blancpain season is set to begin at 14:10 local time in Spain.
