Zandvoort FIA GT: Ortelli/Vanthoor WRT Audi wins thriller

Ortelli hung on to win by just seven tenths of a second after Maximilian Buhk moved his Gravity Charouz Mercedes past the second WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Niki Mayr-Melnhof.

Vanthoor got a run on front-row starters Alvaro Parente and Andreas Simonsen into the first corner and came out ahead after contact involving all three cars.

The Belgian driver led through a shortlived early safety-car period before letting team-mate Rene Rast, Mayr-Melnhof's partner, past at the Tarzan hairpin on lap 12.

Mayr-Melnhof retained the lead after the mid-race pitstop sequence, before Ortelli moved the winning Audi back up front after three laps.

Buhk, who shared the Gravity Charouz Merc SLS AMG with Alon Day, ran fourth after the pitstops, but had the pace to close down and pass the third WRT Audi driven by Edward Sandstrom.

Mayr-Melnhof was able to hold off Buhk until three laps from the end, which meant that Ortelli had just enough in hand to hang on for the victory.

Ortelli said: "I have to say that when I saw the Mercedes behind me, I knew he would be able to pass me if he'd one or two more laps.

"We were struggling a bit with the set-up, with oversteer, but I was quick through the final corner so I had a bit of a gap into Tarzan."

Sandstrom, who was paired as usual with Frank Stippler, finished on the tail of Mayr-Melnhof to take fourth place.

Fifth went to the BMW Team Brazil entry shared by Allam Khodair and Caca Bueno.

Mike Parisy and Andreas Zuber took sixth for the Sebastien Loeb Racing McLaren squad.

Parente, who had qualified on pole in the McLaren MP4-12C he shared with Sebastien Loeb, retired almost immediately after the first-corner incident.

Simonsen, who was paired in his Gravity Charouz Merc with Sergei Afanasiev, was penalised for his part in the incident with a drive-through, but his team-mate was able to recover to seventh and first in the Pro-Am class at the finish.

Results - 33 laps:

Pos  Drivers             Team/Car                      Time/Gap
 1.  Ortelli/Vanthoor    WRT Audi                  1h01m01.018s
 2.  Buhk/Day            Gravity Charouz Mercedes       +0.766s
 3.  Mayr-Melnhof/Rast   WRT Audi                       +2.710s
 4.  Sandstrom/Stippler  WRT Audi                       +3.129s
 5.  Bueno/Khodair       Brasil BMW                     +6.517s
 6.  Parisy/Zuber        Loeb McLaren                  +18.697s
 7.  Afanasiev/Simonsen  Gravity Charouz Mercedes      +19.354s
 8.  Chandhok/Seyffarth  Seyffarth Mercedes            +28.758s
 9.  Ebrahim/Heemskerk   India BMW                     +33.387s
10.  Proczyk/Baumann     Grasser Lamborghini           +34.987s
11.  Campanico/Vieira    Novadriver Audi               +36.260s
12.  Kumpen/Ide          Phoenix Audi                +1m10.576s
13.  Ordonez/Buncombe    RJN Nissan                      +1 lap
14.  Cunha/Stumpf        Rodrive Lamborghini             +1 lap
15.  Charouz/Stovicek    Gravity Charouz Mercedes        +1 lap
16.  Zonta/Jimenez       Brasil BMW                     +5 laps

Retirements:

     Salaquarda/Onidi    AF Ferrari                     12 laps
     Braams/Huisman      V8 Corvette                      1 lap
     Shulzhitskiy/Reip   RJN Nissan                       1 lap
     Loeb/Parente        Loeb McLaren                    0 laps