Exim Porsche fends off Vita4One BMW to take Zolder GT1 World Championship win

Parisy held off a strong challenge from the Vita4One BMW driven by Yelmer Buurman at the end of the wet-dry championship race. The Muhlner Motorsport-run Porsche 911 GT3-R crossed the line just one second ahead of the BMW Z4 Buurman shared with Michael Bartels.

Halliday had entered the pits at the end of the opening stint in third place, but Parisy was in the lead by the time the pitstop sequence came to the end. He found himself with a clear seven-second advantage over Buurman. The Dutchman closed down on the Porsche and was right with Parisy for the final seven laps, but was unable to find away past on a tight Zolder circuit that was still wet off-line.

Halliday said: "We had to manage our tyres in the first stint, stop at the right time and make all the right choices. And that's what we did today."

The first and second-placed cars both started the race on the wet Pirelli tyre before switching to slicks mid-race. The third-place AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia shared by Toni Vilander and Filip Salaquarda began the race on the dry tyre.

Vilander made rapid progress from 13th on the grid to sixth, before slipping back down the field during a light shower. He then moved back up the order as the track began to dry.

The Finn was among the last to stop right at the end of the pit window, allowing Salaquarda to emerge in second place. The Czech lost out to Buurman on cold tyres, but was able to hold on to third.

The All-Inkl Mercedes SLS AMG driven by Thomas Jager and Nicky Pastorelli ended up fourth. Jager held second until the pitstops ahead of Halliday, but a mistake by Pastorelli early in his stint lost the team third place

Maxime Martin was the star of the first half of the race, vaulting from ninth of the grid to the race lead in the space of seven laps. Valmon Aston Martin team-mate Alexei Vasiliev was unable to continue Martin's good work and slipped down the order to 12th at the finish.

Results - 36 laps:

Pos  Drivers                   Team/Car                 Time/Gap
 1.  Halliday/Parisy           Exim Porsche         1h00m32.983s
 2.  Bartels/Buurman           Vita4One BMW             + 1.030s
 3.  Vilander/Salaquarda       AF Corse Ferrari        + 17.256s
 4.  Jager/Pastorelli          Munnich Mercedes        + 29.070s
 5.  Makowiecki/Dusseldorp     Hexis McLaren           + 29.580s
 6.  Vanthoor/Ortelli          WRT Audi                + 29.900s
 7.  Demoustier/Parente        Hexis McLaren           + 32.167s
 8.  von Thurn und Taxis/Enge  Reiter Lamborghini      + 37.156s
 9.  Winkelhock/Basseng        Munnich Mercedes        + 38.456s
10.  Stippler/Jarvis           WRT Audi                + 38.885s
11.  Ide/Castellacci           AF Corse Ferrari        + 47.053s
12.  Martin/Vasiliev           Valmon Aston Martin   + 1m25.273s
13.  O'Young/Kox               Reiter Lamborghini        + 1 lap
14.  Mayr-Melnhof/Lauda        Vita4One BMW              + 1 lap
15.  Zuber/Afanasyev           Valmon Aston Martin       + 1 lap
16.  Pavlovic/Cressoni         Sunred Ford              + 2 laps
17.  Lariche/Wei               Exim Porsche             + 4 laps