Laurens Vanthoor and César Ramos took the win for WRT on home soil in the Qualifying Race, ahead of the NSC Motorsport and Grasser Racing (#24) Lamborghini’s in a race packed with incidents.
The biggest talking point of the race was an collision involving Vanthoor and Rast on lap 9, when the Beglian dived up the inside of Rast for the lead going into the final chicane, tapping and sending the #2 Audi off the circuit where it would slip to fourth place. It made it almost plain sailing for the #1 car going forward.
“In our team we have a rule we don’t go for big dives and moves. I would have just gone for the gap, full attack if it was a different car. He made a mistake the corner before, I pulled out of the slipstream to show I was there, he didn’t see me.
“Maybe it was my misjudgment, we will talk about it,” explained Vanthoor.
On the first lap Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #24 Grasser Gallardo tried to snatch the lead from Vanthoor going into turn 1 around the outside, but Rast dived up the inside and leapfrogged the pair of them to take the lead.
“I tried to go for it, but Rast made it stick, getting past both of us,” said Bleekemolen. “It worked for me in the end though, as Rast lost places. The Audis were just so quick, we had no chance.”
The two WRT Audis then began to pull away from the Dutchman, battling for the lead until the incident. After Rast returned to the race in fourth he had to deal with pressure from behind in the form of Dominik Baumann’s Schubert BMW, but he couldn’t make a move.
As the pit window approached it was clear that most cars were on equal terms, as there was a lot of squabbling up and down the field but almost no moves were made on the narrow track.
That all changed however when Stephane Richelmi in the #9 WRT Audi went backwards into the gravel at turn 16, getting beached and forcing a safety car period as the pit-window opened. All but two cars dived in for their stops immediately, creating a mad scramble at the pit exit.
The top of the order wasn’t shaken up too much, aside from the NSC Lambo, which saw Nick Catsburg hand over to Peter Kox and climb to second overall.
When the race restarted, Ramos – now driving the lead #1 R8 – pulled a gap immediately, and would continue to sustain a greater pace than Kox, eventually creating a 15 second advantage over the Dutchman.
“I was already on the back foot as I made a mistake at the restart. I was pushing though, I had a good set of tyres, but when I did my fastest lap Ramos made such a jump on me, I just decided to preserve the car and manage the gap.
“I just wanted to bring it home because there was no way I could challenge for the lead,” admitted Kox after the race.
Bleekemolen handed over to Hari Proczyk, and once again the Austrian did a masterful job of holding position, securing the team a well deserved third place, and preserving their shot at the title.
With fewer championship points on the line in the Qualifying Race, many drivers became frustrated in the second act of the race, prompting a lot more overtaking and mistakes in what turned out to be a frantic final few laps. The biggest movers towards the end were Andy Soucek in the Beechdean Aston and Max Buhk in the #84 HTP Mercedes.
Soucek – former FIA F2 champion – pulled off some incredible passes towards the end, including getting by Nicki Mayr-Melnhof’s Phoenix Audi for seventh around the outside at turn 1. He would eventually come home an impressive fifth in his debut with the team, after a tangle with Cacao Bueno on the last lap running nose to tail. A great recovery after starting the race 14th.
Buhk meanwhile was out to try and secure his teammate’s chance of a title, and drove through the field in his stint. But on the last lap he knocked Bueno off the track at turn 16 to end a three way battle for fifth. Bueno came home 20th after running in the top 5 and Bukh finished 6th; securing a point for Götz’s title race. The Team Brasil crew were less than impressed.
Marc Basseng and Alessandro Latif had a frustrating outing running towards the back of the field, but managed to win the Pro-Am Trophy for Phoenix. David Fumanelli and Stefano Colombo won the Silver Cup for Roal Motorsport despite deciding to stay out at the pit-window, which lost them a heap of time.
Tomorrow’s Main Race here at Zolder is due to start at 13:45 local time.
Stephen Kilbey
