Slovakia Blancpain: Vanthoor/Ramos win, Enge escapes huge crash
WRT Audi drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos triumphed in an incident-packed and twice red-flagged Blancpain Sprint Series qualifying race at the Slovakia Ring
Ramos brought his Audi R8 LMS ultra across the line on a wet track 3.6 seconds ahead of the Grasser Lamborghini Gallardo FLII driven by Hari Proczyk at the end of a 60-minute race that took more than two hours to complete courtesy of the stoppages.
The Brazilian came from third after the second of the red flags, overtaking Proczyk's Grasser Lamborghini and then taking the lead after team-mate Enzo Ide spun with five minutes left to run.
Ramos said: "It was different fighting the Lambo for second because I was able to take risks.
"When I was behind Ide, I had to think about two WRT cars making it home, but I put him under pressure and fortunately for me and unfortunately for him, he spun."
Proczyk, who shares his Gallardo with Jeroen Bleekemolen, held off a challenge from Nico Verdonck's HTP Motorsport Mercedes in the final laps to take second.
Verdonck, a late stand-in for this event after Maximilian Buhk was prevented from taking part, and co-driver Maximilian Gotz finished just ahead of the Brazilian BMW Z4 shared by Matheus Stumpf and Valdeno Brito.
David Fumanelli and Stefano Colombo took Silver Cup honours for the ROAL BMW team with fifth place after Vincent Abril went off in the WRT Audi he shares with Mateusz Lisowski on the last lap.
The second BMW Team Brazil entry, shared by Caca Bueno and Sergio Jimenez, came through from the back after a post-qualifying engine change to take sixth place.
Pole winner Vanthoor dropped as low as fifth at a chaotic start, shortly after which the race was put under caution and then red-flagged following a major accident.
Tomas Enge's Reiter Lamborghini was involved in a contact that sent him into the barriers before he rolled multiple times end over end.
The Czech driver was able to extricate himself from the wreck unaided.
The race resumed in wet conditions after the necessary barrier repairs were completed.
Rene Rast, Ide's co-driver, was able to move up from third past Markus Winkelhock's Phoenix Audi and race leader Bleekemolen in the wet conditions.
Heavy rain during the window for the mandatory pitstops in the middle of the race subsequently caused a second red flag with 28 minutes left on the clock.
Winkelhock had yet to pit, which meant team-mate Niki Mayr-Melnhof lost track position when the Audi finally came in after the race resumed behind the safety car. They finished down the order in 15th.
Leading results - 27 laps: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Ramos/Vanthoor WRT Audi 2h07m45.766 2. Proczyk/Bleekemolen Grasser Lamborghini +3.634s 3. Verdonck/Gotz HTP Mercedes +4.357s 4. Stumpf/Brito AutOrlando BMW +6.809s 5. Colombo/Fumanelli ROAL BMW +7.563s 6. Abril/Lisowski WRT Audi +8.629s 7. Bueno/Jimenez Brazil BMW +10.217s 8. Basseng/Latif Phoenix Audi +10.317s 9. Ide/Rast WRT Audi +16.762s 10. Zanardi ROAL BMW +27.754s
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