Misano Blancpain GT: WRT Audi resists ASP Mercedes in evening race

Mies in the #1 Audi held off the #88 ASP Mercedes of Raffaele Marciello and Michael Meadows during the final third of the race.

Marciello slowly ate into Mies' lead, but during the final few laps lost a little ground to the Audi.

Riberas had started the race in second place and briefly led during the opening 15 minutes, then fell back down to second after a virtual safety car restart.

The VSC had been prompted by the polesitting #87 ASP Mercedes of Nico Jamin stopping on the start/finish straight while leading the race.

Team-mate Nico Bastian's #90 Mercedes grabbed the lead from Riberas at the restart, but then stayed out until the final minute of the pit window while WRT pitted the #1 car early.

A slow pitstop as Bastian handed over to partner Jack Manchester gave the lead to fellow ASP man Marciello, who had taken over from Meadows and then resisted Mies to the finish and won by six tenths of a second.

The podium was completed by #63 Grasser Lamborghini duo Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart, who ended the race 16s behind the leading two cars after starting the race in ninth.

Grasser's #19 car was fourth with Andrea Caldarelli and Ezequiel Perez Companc, who got past the #114 Emil Frey Lexus of Stephane Ortelli and Norbert Siedler and then Manchester.

Ortelli was also able to get around Manchester not long after to finish in fifth, with Manchester's #90 team finishing sixth overall but top of the Silver class.

Class rival Mikael Grenier in the #54 Emil Frey Jaguar that he shares with Alex Fontana was catching Manchester during the final laps in the race, but finished in seventh and 0.309s shy.

Markus Winkelhock and Nyls Stievenart topped the Pro-Am class in their #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi, finishing the race in 11th overall.

Race one result

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Laps	Gap
1	A.Riberas, C.Mies	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	37	1h00m15.012s
2	M.Meadows, R.Marciello	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes	37	0.642s
3	C.Engelhart, M.Bortolotti	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	37	16.760s
4	E.P.Companc, A.Caldarelli	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	37	20.650s
5	S.Ortelli, N.Siedler	Emil Frey Racing	Lexus	37	26.903s
6	N.Bastian, J.Manchester	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes	37	43.392s
7	A.Fontana, M.Grenier	Emil Frey Racing	Jaguar	37	43.701s
8	S.Leonard, S.van der Linde	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	37	48.461s
9	A.Costa, C.Klien	Emil Frey Racing	Lexus	37	50.741s
10	R.Feller, A.De Leener	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	37	57.551s
11	N.Stievenart, M.Winkelhock	Sainteloc Junior Team	Audi	37	57.845s
12	V.Atoev, A.Korneev	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes	37	1m00.979s
13	P.B.-Bhakdi, C.van Dam	Kessel Racing	Ferrari	37	1m16.281s
14	A.Watson, L.Moraes	3Y Technology	BMW	37	1m34.389s
15	J.Caygill, A.T.-Smith	Team Parker Racing	Bentley	36	1 Lap
16	J.Malcharek, C.Malcharek	Audi Sport Slovakia	Audi	36	1 Lap
17	L.Hezemans, F.Perera	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	28	9 Laps
-	S.Schothorst, K.van der Linde	Attempto Racing	Audi	22	Retirement
-	D.Vanthoor, W.Stevens	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	18	Retirement
-	P.Schothorst, P.Kaffer	Attempto Racing	Audi	9	Retirement
-	N.Jamin, D.Bulatov	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes	5	Retirement
-	S.Gachet, C.Haase	Sainteloc Junior Team	Audi	0	Retirement