Slovakia FIA GT: Sebastien Loeb/Alvaro Parente McLaren wins heat
Sebastien Loeb and Alavaro Parente claimed victory in the qualifying race at the Slovakia Ring FIA GT Series round
Parente jumped from eighth on the grid to second at the start aboard his Sebastien Loeb Racing McLaren MP4-12C and then Loeb was able to pass race leader Niki Mayr-Melnhof's WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra straight after the mid-race pitstop sequence.
Parente said: "I did things a bit different at the start and was a lot better than last time at Zandvoort [in July]. I risked a bit by going to the outside and I got into second."
WRT duo Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor came from ninth on the grid to claim second place right at the end when Alon Day took a drive-through penalty in the lead Charouz Mercedes SLS AMG.
Day, who shared the car with Maximilian Buhk, was penalised for contact when he passed Mayr-Melnhof for second on lap 21 of the 27-lap race.
Peter Kox and Stefan Rosina took the final place on the podium in the best of the Reiter-run Blancpain Lamborghini Gallardo LP560s, while fourth went to the second Loeb McLaren shared by Mike Parisy and Andreas Zuber.
Mayr-Melnhof and team-mate Rene Rast, who led to the pitstops from pole position, ended up fifth. Day and Buhk crossed the line in 10th place.
Victory in the Pro-Am Cup and sixth place overall went to Sergei Afanasiev and Andreas Simonsen in the second Charouz Mercedes.
Results - 27 laps: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Loeb/Parente Loeb McLaren 1h01m58.216s 2. Ortelli/Vanthoor WRT Audi +4.753s 3. Kox/Rosina Reiter Lamborghini +5.354s 4. Zuber/Parisy Loeb McLaren +8.107s 5. Mayr-Melnhof/Rast WRT Audi +13.701s 6. Simonsen/Afanasiev Gravity Charouz Mercedes +14.195s 7. Khodair/Bueno Brasil BMW +14.797s 8. Zonta/Simenez Brasil BMW +20.053s 9. Sandstrom/Stippler WRT Audi +21.023s 10. Day/Buhk Gravity Charouz Mercedes +25.029s 11. von Thurn und Taxis/Basseng Reiter Lamborghini +29.960s 12. Reip/Buncombe RJN Nissan +33.191s 13. Salaquarda/Onidi AF Ferrari +33.658s 14. Proczyk/Baumann Grasser Lamborghini +49.833s 15. Stumpf/Cunha Rodrive Lamborghini +52.633s 16. Sdanewitsch/Rugolo AF Ferrari +1m50.174s 17. Vieira/Campanico Novadriver Audi +1 lap 18. Charouz/Stovicek Gravity Charouz Mercedes +1 lap Retirements: Michael/Haupt Seyffarth Mercedes 17 laps Chandhok/Seyffarth Seyffarth Mercedes 10 laps Sladecka/Ebrahim India BMW 3 laps
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