Black Falcon's Engel and Stolz win second Brands Hatch Blancpain race
Black Falcon Mercedes pair Maro Engel and Luca Stolz won the second Brands Hatch Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe race of the season-opener, after surprise poleman Fabian Schiller dropped back
Reigning Endurance Cup champions Stolz and Engel had finished runner-up to Silver Cup competitors Nico Bastian and Thomas Neubauer in a Akka ASP Mercedes in the first race of the day.
In race two, surprise pole sitter Fabian Schiller, in Akka ASP's #90 Mercedes, also from the Silver Cup, led early on and quickly built a lead of 3.5 seconds after the opening stint was interrupted by a lengthy safety car period.
Just after half distance, however, he received a drive-through penalty issued for speeding under the safety car, as he proceeded at 94.1km/h rather than the permitted 80km/h.
After pitting relatively late the Schiller Mercedes, now in Timur Bogulavskiy's hands, dropped to eighth place.
It was later announced that the penalty was being suspended until after the race. Schiller argued that the speed was set while he was catching up with the safety car, which was some way ahead amid some confusion.
This all left Stolz in a clear lead. His co-driver Engel had run third in the opening stint behind leader Schiller and Nick Foster in the #55 Attempto Racing Audi in second, and the Black Falcon Mercedes vaulted to the front through the pitstop phase.
Stolz then build a commanding lead over second-placed Vincent Abril in the #88 Akka ASP Mercedes shared with Raffaele Marciello.
Abril then rolled to a halt with 15 minutes left having gradually lost drive, related to a suspected clutch problem, which let Andrea Caldarelli's Orange 1 FFF Huracan, who'd taken over from Marco Mapelli, through to finish second, 11.6s shy of Stolz.
Foster and Steijn Schothorst, whose R8 had crashed out at the first turn of race one, finished third. The car still had gravel in it going to the race two grid as the team didn't have time to remove the floor between races.
Race one overall winner Bastian lost fourth place with a late drive-through penalty for overtaking under the full course yellow.
However, the car still got the Silver Cup victory as Bogulavskiy, who was set to re-take the Silver Cup lead, stopped his smoky Mercedes before the pit entrance.
Blancpain GT Series Asia champion Hiroshi Hamaguchi, paired with Phil Keen aboard the #519 FFF Racing Huracan, pipped Jean-Luc Beaubelique, paired with Jim Pla in the #87 Akka ASP Mercedes, on the line to take the Pro-Am win by just 0.025s.
The safety car in the opening stint was caused by a multi-car crash at the exit of Hawthorn's nine minutes into the hour-long race.
It occurred when David Perel in an Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 nudged Phoenix Racing's Frederic Vervisch in the #11 R8 into a spin, and several cars were caught up in the resultant melee.
Andrea Bertolini's #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 was out on the spot while WRT Audi pair Rik Breukers and Dries Vanthoor, #10 and #1 respectively, continued only as far as the end of the lap.
Vervisch continued as did Sainteloc Racing's Christopher Haase in the #25 R8 after repairs to his right-hand door.
Perel got a drive-through penalty for causing the collision, costing him the Pro-Am lead.
Christian Engelhart's Grasser Racing #63 Lamborghini Huracan was apparently carrying some of Bertolini's errant bodywork, and shortly afterwards got a drivethrough for colliding with Keen just before the safety car period.
Markus Winkelhock, joined by Steven Palette in the Sainteloc's #26 Audi, was nudged out into the Paddock gravel on lap one.
McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Tom Gamble in the #17 WRT Silver Cup Audi, partnering with Shae Davies, retired in the pits at end of that lap with rear damage.
Race two result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | L.Stolz, M.Engel | Black Falcon | Mercedes | 39 | 1h01m05.000s |
2 | A.Caldarelli, M.Mapelli | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 39 | 11.643s |
3 | S.Schothorst, N.Foster | Attempto Racing | Audi | 39 | 14.190s |
4 | K.van der Linde, C.Schmid | Attempto Racing | Audi | 39 | 15.164s |
5 | R.Collard, M.Kirchhofer | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | 39 | 17.168s |
6 | C.Weerts, C.Mies | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 39 | 20.369s |
7 | S.Gachet, C.Haase | Sainteloc Junior Team | Audi | 39 | 24.825s |
8 | N.Bastian, T.Neubauer | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 39 | 33.575s |
9 | M.Dontje, M.Drudi | Attempto Racing | Audi | 39 | 38.433s |
10 | C.Engelhart, M.Bortolotti | GRT Grasser Racing Team | Lamborghini | 39 | 38.671s |
11 | A.Vainio, H.de Sadeleer | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | 39 | 43.807s |
12 | F.Hutchison, F.Vervisch | Phoenix Racing | Audi | 39 | 50.363s |
13 | K-L.Schramm, F.Stippler | Phoenix Racing | Audi | 39 | 54.444s |
14 | H.Hamaguchi, P.Keen | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 39 | 1m19.604s |
15 | J-L.Beaubelique, J.Pla | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 39 | 1m19.629s |
16 | R.Salikhov, D.Perel | Rinaldi Racing | Ferrari | 38 | 1 Lap |
17 | W.Triller, F.Scholze | Team HB Racing | Ferrari | 38 | 1 Lap |
18 | T.Boguslavskiy, F.Schiller | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 36 | 3 Laps |
19 | V.Abril, R.Marciello | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 27 | 12 Laps |
- | L.Machiels, A.Bertolini | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 5 | Retirement |
- | R.Breukers, O.Tunjo | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 5 | Retirement |
- | E.P.Companc, D.Vanthoor | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 5 | Retirement |
- | S.Davies, T.Gamble | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 0 | Retirement |
- | N.Stievenart, S.Ortelli | Sainteloc Junior Team | Audi | 0 | Withdrawn |
- | T.Proto, D.Menchaca | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 0 | Not started |
- | S.Palette, M.Winkelhock | Sainteloc Junior Team | Audi | 0 | Retirement |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments