All-Inkl Munnich Mercedes one-two in Algarve GT1 World Championship race
The All-Inkl Mercedes squad took a one-two victory in the main event at the Algarve round of the FIA GT1 World Championship on Sunday
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
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