All-Inkl Munnich Mercedes one-two in Algarve GT1 World Championship race

Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jager secured the win in Portugal after Jager came out on top in a thrilling battle between the two Mercedes SLS AMGs and the lead Hexis McLaren MP4-12C straight after the pitstops in the middle of the championship race.

Markus Winkelhock came out of the pits just ahead of team-mate Jager, who had taken over from Pastorelli three laps earlier. The seconds Jager lost behind his team-mate allowed the Stef Dusseldorp in the McLaren, which went one lap further still, to exit the pits with the narrowest of leads.

Jager was allowed through by his team-mate after two laps and then passed the McLaren on the same lap. Winkelhock then moved into second with a carbon-copy manoeuvre on the following lap, but was already a second and a half behind and was never able to get close enough to mount a real challenge in the car he shared with Marc Basseng.

"I'm really excited because it was such a tough fight," said Jager. "Nicky did a great job and the car was so consistent."

Dusseldorp, who shared the lead Hexis McLaren with Frederic Makowiecki, ended up third after resisting pressure from the Vita4One BMW Z4 driven by Michael Bartels. The German driver, who still leads the championship with co-driver Yelmer Buurman, missed a gear on the final lap and ended up losing fourth to a charging Peter Kox in the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP560.

Results - 33 laps:

Pos  Drivers                     Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Pastorelli/Jager            Munnich Mercedes    1h00m25.723s
 2.  Basseng/Winkelhock          Munnich Mercedes        + 1.537s
 3.  Makowiecki/Dusseldorp       Hexis McLaren           + 5.163s
 4.  O'Young/Kox                 Reiter Lamborghini      + 6.511s
 5.  Buurman/Bartels             Vita4One BMW            + 6.878s
 6.  Ortelli/Vanthoor            WRT Audi               + 31.875s
 7.  Ide/Castellacci             AF Corse Ferrari       + 34.723s
 8.  Lauda/Mayr-Melnhof          Vita4One BMW           + 51.195s
 9.  Cressoni/Pavlovic           SUNRED Ford          + 1m45.458s

Retirements:

     Parisy/Zuber                Exim Porsche             32 laps
     Demoustier/Parente          Hexis McLaren            26 laps
     von Thurn und Taxis/Rosina  Reiter Lamborghini       26 laps
     Stippler/Jarvis             WRT Audi                  7 laps
     Vilander/Salaquarda         AF Corse Ferrari          1 laps