Moscow GT1: Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor's WRT Audi wins qualifying race
Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor claimed WRT Audi's first World GT1 win since the opening round, as they prevailed in a damp qualifying race at Moscow Raceway
A brief burst of rain minutes beforehand forced the race to start behind the safety car, with all the cars on wet tyres.
Gregoire Demoustier's Hexis McLaren and Filip Salaquarda's AF Corse Ferrari both missed their braking points at the first corner when the safety car came in, allowing Oliver Jarvis to take advantage and move his Audi in to the lead.
It was not long before the sister car of Vanthoor moved past the second McLaren of Stef Dusseldorp to climb into second place.
The two Audis then spent the remainder of the first stint duelling, the highlight being Vanthoor's cunning attempt at passing Jarvis via two backmarkers. In the four abreast moment into Turn 10 Jarvis found grip around the outside and just held on to the lead.
After the pitstops the story was much the same, with Frank Stippler and Ortelli spending half a lap alongside one another. Ultimately, Stippler's pace dropped off dramatically, allowing Ortelli to romp to victory.
Stippler could not hold off the charging All-Inkl Mercedes of Markus Winkelhock, but managed to keep ahead of Fred Makowiecki's Hexis McLaren to claim third on the grid for the championship race.
All-Inkl extended its teams' championship lead, with Thomas Jager and Nicky Pastorelli finishing fifth ahead of the second McLaren, while Vita4One struggled with its BMW Z4s.
Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof and Mathias Lauda could only manage seventh, while championship leaders Michael Bartels and Yelmer Buurman rued an ill-advised move to slicks, finishing a lap down.
Results - 32 laps: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Ortelli/Vanthoor WRT Audi 1h00m49.179s 2. Winkelhock/Basseng Munnich Mercedes + 9.511s 3. Stippler/Jarvis WRT Audi + 16.984s 4. Makowiecki/Dusseldorp Hexis McLaren + 17.147s 5. Jager/Pastorelli Munnich Mercedes + 24.626s 6. Parente/Demoustier Hexis McLaren + 41.558s 7. Mayr-Melnhof/Lauda Vita4One BMW + 46.932s 8. Ide/Castellacci AF Ferrari + 1m04.683s 9. Vilander/Salaquarda AF Ferrari + 1 lap 10. Buurman/Bartels Vita4One BMW + 1 lap 11. Ebrahim/Lariche SUNRED Ford + 2 laps
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