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Lamborghini beats HTP Mercedes by 0.3s in Silverstone Blancpain GT

Factory Lamborghini drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Christian Engelhart made it two wins from two starts in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Silverstone

The trio claimed victory by just three tenths of a second from the HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Franck Perera, Jimmy Eriksson and Maximilian Buhk to follow up on their win in the Monza series opener last month.

Bortolotti dominated the opening stint, building up a six-second advantage that was ultimately undone by a short safety-car period that immediately preceded the first round of pitstops.

Caldarelli dropped to second during the stops after an early pitcall by the Auto Sport Promotion Mercedes started by Edoardo Mortara gave team-mate Michael Meadows the lead.

An attempt by Caldarelli to wrest the lead from the Mercedes around the outside at Brooklands only resulted in the Lamborghini losing second to Eriksson at Luffield.

The top three entered the pits for the final round of stops in nose-to-tail formation, the Grasser crew winning the race to turn the cars around and getting Engelhart out back in the lead.

Engelhart was able to maintain a narrow gap to Raffaele Marciello, who lost second spot to Buhk with just over 20 minutes to go.

The Mercedes got then held up in traffic, which allowed the Lamborghini to open up a lead of more than three seconds.

Buhk closed down Engelhart in the closing stages and was right with the Lamborghini with three laps to go.

"I was surprised that I had quite a margin but also surprised at how quickly the Merc could catch up," said Engelhart.

Marciello was 2.7s down at the finish in third, a similar margin ahead of the fourth-place SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 shared by Victor Shaytar, Miguel Molina and Davide Rigon.

M-Sport claimed fifth spot with the Bentley Continental GT3 driven by Vincent Abril, Andy Soucek and Maxime Soulet, which vaulted into contention from outside the top 20 during the first pitstop cycle.

The AF Corse-run Spirit of Race Ferrari shared by Pasin Lathouras, Michele Rugolo and Alessandro Pier Guidi took sixth.

The ASP Mercedes in which Daniel Juncadella had taken pole position ended up 11th after a one-minute stop-go penalty for an infraction at the start.

Pro-am honours went to the British Barwell Lamborghini squad.

Patrick Kujala, who shared the car with Martin Kodric and Adrian Amstutz, hung on to cross the line just over a second clear of the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage V12 that Jonny Adam had taken over from Ahmad Al Harthy for the final stint.

RESULTS - 83 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 M.Bortolotti, C.Engelhart, A.Caldarelli GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini 3h02m00.635s
2 M.Buhk, F.Perera, J.Eriksson HTP Motorsport Mercedes 0.344s
3 M.Meadows, R.Marciello, E.Mortara Akka ASP Team Mercedes 3.072s
4 V.Shaytar, D.Rigon, M.Molina SMP Racing Ferrari 5.871s
5 A.Soucek, M.Soulet, V.Abril Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley 28.330s
6 P.Lathouras, M.Rugolo, A.P.Guidi Spirit of Race Ferrari 35.713s
7 A.Sims, M.Martin, P.Eng Rowe Racing BMW 36.898s
8 L.Williamson, O.Webb, A.Parente Strakka Racing McLaren 44.743s
9 S.Kane, G.Smith, O.Jarvis Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley 1m07.204s
10 L.Frey, S.Ortelli, A.Costa Emil Frey Racing Jaguar 1m07.620s
11 F.Serralles, D.Juncadella, T.Vautier Akka ASP Team Mercedes 1m15.068s
12 J.Hirschi, C.Klien, M.Seefried Emil Frey Racing Jaguar 1m18.209s
13 S.Leonard, J.Green, J.Dennis Team WRT Audi 1m21.123s
14 F.Crestani, G.Yacaman, N.Pohler Lazarus Lamborghini 1m21.740s
15 A.Piccini, M.Beretta, S.Gattuso Ombra Racing Lamborghini 1m21.828s
16 A.Buncombe, L.Ordonez, K.Chiyo RJN Motorsport Nissan 1m27.261s
17 E.P.Companc, N.Siedler, R.Giammaria GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini 1m30.539s
18 N.Menzel, C.Krognes, M.Jensen Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW 1m35.596s
19 B.Baguette, G.Venturini, M.Mapelli Attempto Racing Lamborghini 1m41.039s
20 A.Amstutz, M.Kodric, P.Kujala Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini 1m41.864s
21 A.Al Harthy, J.Adam Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin 1m42.942s
22 J-L.Beaubelique, J.Gounon, N.Bastian Akka ASP Team Mercedes 1m45.747s
23 G.Fisichella, M.Cioci, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 1m46.143s
24 M.Simmons, M.Parry, S.Moore RJN Motorsport Nissan 1m50.601s
25 H.Abbott, M.Skeen, D.Faulkner HTP Motorsport Mercedes 1 Lap
26 L.Machitski, M.Ramos, R.Abra Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini 1 Lap
27 A.Amici, D.Lind, S.Costantini Raton Racing Lamborghini 1 Lap
28 J.Haring, A.Renauer, R.Renauer Herberth Motorsport Porsche 1 Lap
29 A.Watson, J.Jaafar, D.Stoneman Strakka Racing McLaren 1 Lap
30 M.van Splunteren, C.Mateu, G.Maggi Attempto Racing Lamborghini 1 Lap
31 J.Caygill, J.Venter, N.M.-Melnhof Team WRT Audi 1 Lap
32 D.Perfetti, A.Fontana, L.Badey Akka ASP Team Mercedes 1 Lap
33 N.Hommerson, L.Machiels, R.Butcher Spirit of Race Ferrari 1 Lap
34 C.Ledogar, R.Bell, B.Barnicoat Strakka Racing McLaren 2 Laps
35 P.Ehret, R.Mastronardi Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 2 Laps
36 C.Kelders, M.Rostan, C.Haase Sainteloc Junior Team Audi 2 Laps
37 D.Baumann, E.Sandstrom, F.Schiller HTP Motorsport Mercedes 2 Laps
38 M.Ishikawa, L.Bontempelli, O.Beretta AF Corse Ferrari 2 Laps
39 J.Duyver, M.Zanuttini, D.Perel Kessel Racing Ferrari 3 Laps
40 B.Sandberg, D.Chaponick, S.Heckert Black Falcon Mercedes 3 Laps
41 M.Palttala, B.Spengler, J.Krohn Rowe Racing BMW 3 Laps
42 D.Schiwietz, H.Walkenhorst, M.Henkola Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW 3 Laps
43 B.Delhez, G.Vannelet, M.Stursberg Team HB Racing Lamborghini 4 Laps
44 M.Broniszewski, A.Rizzoli, M.Cressoni Kessel Racing Ferrari 4 Laps
45 K.Lendoudis, R.Aguas, J.M.Balbiani Team Zakspeed Mercedes 12 Laps
- A.Mattschull, D.Keilwitz, R.Salikhov Rinaldi Racing Ferrari Disqualified
- A.Christodoulou, Y.Buurman, L.Stolz Black Falcon Mercedes Retirement
- A.West, C.Goodwin, C.Harris Garage 59 McLaren Retirement
- M.Fassler, D.Vanthoor, W.Stevens Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi Retirement
- N.Berthon, S.Richelmi, B.Treluyer Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi Retirement
- I.Vinke, B.Caccia, J.Viebahn Team Zakspeed Mercedes Retirement
- K.Heyer, I.Dontje, P.Assenheimer MANN-FILTER Team HTP Motorsport Mercedes Retirement
- F.Salaquarda, F.Stippler, C.Schmid ISR Audi Retirement
- J.Kane, D.Fumanelli, S.Tordoff Strakka Racing McLaren Retirement
- O.Morley, M.Toril, M.Metzger Black Falcon Mercedes Retirement


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