Zolder Blancpain Sprint: Vanthoor and Frijns win again in main race
WRT Audi duo Laurens Vanthoor and Robin Frijns made it four wins in a row in the Blancpain Sprint Series with a dominant victory in the main race at Zolder


The Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Vanthoor and Frijns was only headed, as in the qualifying race yesterday, during the mid-race pitstop sequence on the way to a 10-second victory.
Life for Vanthoor and Frijns was made easier when the Rinaldi Ferrari
458 Italia that they had been expecting to mount a challenge went out of the race after Marco Seefried clipped the nose of the HTP Bentley driven by Vincent Abril at the first corner.
Frijns was able to pull away from the fast-starting Team BMW Brazil entry of Atila Abreu almost immediately.
The Dutchman was a couple of seconds to the good after three laps and six second ahead by the 10-lap mark.
Vanthoor resumed with a 11s advantage over the Bentley now driven by Maximilian Buhk, who had leapfrogged the Brazilian BMW Z4 GT3 in the pits, and was to maintain that gap to the end.
Factory Audi driver Vanthoor, who won both races at the Brands Hatch BSS round together with Frijns last month, said: "It is never easy and we still had to fight for it.
"We were fearing and excepting the Ferrari to be strong and spent a lot of time talking about tactics, but they ended up being wasted hours."
Valdeno Brito came home third in the BMW he shared with Abreu, but was less than half a second clear of the sister car driven by Caca Bueno and Sergio Jimenez at the finish.
The Phoenix Audi of Niki Mayr-Melnhof and Markus Winkelhock ended up fifth after a quick mid-race pitstop.
Jules Szymkowiak and Tom Dillmann took honours in the Silver Cup class in the second HTP Bentley with sixth place.
Christopher Mies had jumped to ninth on the grid to third on the first lap in what was subsequently adjudged to be a false start, which resulted in a drive-through just after he had taken second from Abreu.
RESULT - 39 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | R.Frijns, L.Vanthoor | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 1h00m26.711s |
2 | V.Abril, M.Buhk | Bentley Team HTP | Bentley | 9.944s |
3 | V.Brito, A.Abreu | BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil | BMW | 13.609s |
4 | C.Bueno, S.Jimenez | BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil | BMW | 14.041s |
5 | N.M.-Melnhof, M.Winkelhock | Phoenix Racing | Audi | 19.289s |
6 | J.Szymkowiak, T.Dillmann | Bentley Team HTP | Bentley | 21.671s |
7 | S.Ortelli, S.Richelmi | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 22.635s |
8 | F.Salaquarda, M.Bonanomi | ISR | Audi | 29.817s |
9 | A.T.Taxis, P.Kox | Reiter Engineering | Lamborghini | 30.631s |
10 | S.Walkinshaw, C.Dolby | MRS GT Racing | Nissan | 40.606s |
11 | N.Armindo, P.Wlazik | Attempto Racing | McLaren | 58.120s |
12 | T.Fjordbach, A.Fjordbach | ISR | Audi | 1m02.487s |
13 | A.Karachev, B.Schneider | GT Russian Team | Mercedes | 1m02.962s |
- | C.Mies, E.Ide | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | Retirement |
- | K.Estre, R.Bell | Attempto Racing | McLaren | Retirement |
- | M.Seefried, N.Siedler | Rinaldi Racing | Ferrari | Retirement |
- | J.Nash, F.Stippler | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | Withdrawn |
- | A.Vasiliev, M.Asmer | GT Russian Team | Mercedes | Retirement |

Blancpain Sprint Series finale moved from Baku to Zandvoort
FR3.5 driver Tom Dillmann eyes more GT outings after Bentley debut

Latest news
Double F1 race winner Jean Pierre Jabouille has died
Former French Formula 1 driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille has died on Thursday at age 80, French media have reported.
IMSA champion Jarvis to contest full ELMS season with United Autosports
Reigning IMSA Sportscar Championship title-winner Oliver Jarvis will contest the European Le Mans Series with United Autosports alongside Formula 2 convert Marino Sato, in addition to the World Endurance Championship.
20 years on: Porsche’s 911 GT Daytona 24 Hours giant-killing relived
IMSA’s new GTP class for LMDh cars had a more auspicious debut last weekend than the Daytona Prototypes that arrived in 2003. Back then, they were humbled by a GT Porsche 911, which won the Floridian sportscar classic by nine laps.
Entries open for the 2023 Williams Autosport Engineer of the Future Award story
Entries have opened for the 2023 Williams Autosport Engineer of the Future Award, with budding motorsport engineers invited to apply for the revamped prize.
The F1 technology behind Mercedes’ Nordschleife record hypercar
It’s taken over half a decade of development but now the Mercedes-AMG One is here – boasting 1048bhp from a Formula 1-based hybrid powertrain and smashing the Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record for a production car with Maro Engel at the wheel last month. ROBERT HOLMES wonders if it can now claim to be the ultimate hypercar...
How to get the best out of amateur racers
Pro-Am GT racing is booming. But how should drivers approach working with an amateur? Autosport sought out a panel of experts to explain the pitfalls amateur drivers should avoid and how professionals can help them to achieve their goals
The remarkable career of a 'classy' champion who rejected politics
Over two decades as a factory driver with Audi and BMW, Martin Tomczyk earned the respect of team-mates and rivals as a hard but fair racer. After calling time on his racing career, the 2011 DTM champion sat down with Autosport to look back
The ex-IndyCar racer in "uncharted territory" of British GT team ownership
This weekend’s British GT finale will be a tense title showdown for some but, for those not in the championship fight, it’s a chance to end a challenging year on a high. In the latter camp is Paddock Motorsport's team owner Martin Plowman, whose 2021 season has been a rollercoaster ride of non-stop learning
The unpopular BMW stalwart built for the big occasion
It has won most of the big prizes in endurance racing across its six years in service, but the BMW M6 GT3's key weaknesses meant only a devoted few teams persisted with running it. As it prepares to bow out at season's end, the teams and drivers involved in its story share the secrets of an unpopular winner
The unwanted GT car that changed sportscar racing forever
Had FIA GT boss Stephane Ratel had his way, the Maserati MC12 would never have been allowed to set foot in his series. It duly proved the class of the field that most had expected, but the Balance of Performance that its superiority spawned would keep GT1 battles tight and bring long-term benefits that sportscar racing enjoys today
Why Britain's greatest sportscar was eclipsed on the world stage
The E-Type may be the most famous of all road-going Jaguars, but that didn't always translate into success on the track. After winning on its competition debut in 1961, motorsport success seemed an inevitability, but things didn’t turn out to be quite that straightforward
Why the Jaguar E-type remains special at 60
It’s 60 years since the Jaguar E-type arrived and caused a sensation. As our resident racer Ben Anderson discovered when he got behind the wheel of two special racing versions at Brands Hatch, the thrill of driving them hasn't diminished over time
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.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.