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WRT Audi wins Blancpain Endurance opener at Monza

The WRT Audi squad won the opening round of the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Monza. 

#1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS: Alex Riberas, Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor

#1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS: Alex Riberas, Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor

SRO

The best of the Belgian team's Audi R8 LMS GT3s driven by Christopher Mies, Alex Riberas and Dries Vanthoor came from fifth position before the opening round of pitstops to take Audi's first victory in the traditional Blancpain season opener since 2011. 

Vanthoor emerged from the final stops of the three-hour race in second position behind the leading Strakka Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Maximilian Gotz and quickly closed down a deficit of nearly four seconds. 

The Belgian made it past the Mercedes co-driven by Alvaro Parente and Maximilian Buhk for the first time with just over half an hour to go when he got a better run out of the Parabolica.

But Vanthoor had to give the position back when it was adjudged that he had exceeded track limits after crossing the white line that sits two metres out from the pitwall on the Monza start/finish straight. 

One lap later, Vanthoor looked first to the inside and then the outside into the first chicane and put two wheels on the grass as Gotz moved back across on him. The German was adjudged to be at fault and had to cede position to the Audi for the driving infraction. 

Vanthoor was able to pull away from Gotz over the remainder of the race and crossed the line with two seconds in hand.

The Black Falcon Mercedes of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman took third position after battling back from a stop-go penalty, making it past the Grasser Lamborghini Hurcan GT3 of reigning champions Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Christian Engelhart in the closing stages. 

The car had to take a drive-through for an infraction during a full-course yellow virtual safety car at the end of the opening hour. 

The Lamborghini, which was hit by a 15kg Balance of Performance weight penalty ahead of qualifying, just hung onto fourth by three tenths from the Emil Frey Jaguar G3 of Mikael Grenier, Alex Fontana and Adrian Zaugg, which had been on course for a top three until losing time in its final pitstop. 

The SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 that had qualified on pole position led the opening hour in Miguel Molina's hands before Mikhail Aleshin was unable to do anything about a charging Buhk in the middle hour. 

A loose bolt in the throttle mechanism cost the car time when Davide Rigon took over for the final hour and then forced the car into the pits for repairs.

Race results (top 10):

 Pos. No.DriversCar  Time/Gap
1  Dries Vanthoor
 Christopher Mies
 Alex Riberas
Audi  3:00'32.946
43  Maximilian Buhk
 Alvaro Parente
 Maximilian Gotz
Mercedes 2.017
4  Luca Stolz
 Yelmer Buurman
 Maro Engel
Mercedes 14.603
63  Andrea Caldarelli
 Christian Engelhart
 Mirko Bortolotti
Lamborghini 17.605
54  Alex Fontana
 Adrian Zaugg
 Mikael Grenier
Jaguar 17.939
66  Pieter Schothorst
 Steijn Schothorst
 Kelvin van der Linde
Audi 21.932
17  Stuart Leonard
 Sheldon van der Linde
 Robin Frijns
Audi 44.084
44  Adrien Tambay
 Lucas Auer
 David Fumanelli
Mercedes 48.977
62  Alex Brundle
 Marvin Kirchhofer
 Maxime Martin
Aston Martin 49.199
10  6  Abdulaziz Al Faisal
 Hubert Haupt
 Gabriele Piana
Mercedes 51.162

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