Zolder FIA GT: Reiter Lamborghini fends off WRT Audi for win
Peter Kox and Stefan Rosina gave the Reiter Lamborghini team victory in the main race at Zolder on its maiden outing in the new FIA GT Series
Rosina fought a solid rearguard action aboard his Gallardo LP560 to hold off a challenge from Laurens Vanthoor in the best of the WRT Audi R8 LMS ultras.
The Slovakian crossed the line just four tenths of a second ahead after a series of late lunges from the Belgian driver over the course of the final lap.
Kox had built up a big lead over Stephane Ortelli in the second-placed Audi through his stint, racing into a five-second advantage in the space of six laps.
The Dutchman had a margin of six seconds by the time the pitstops started, but the gap was halved courtesy of WRT's quicker turnaround.
Vanthoor was able to close down Rosina and was right with the Lamborghini with 11 minutes of the one-hour race to run.
Rosina said: "Yesterday [in the qualifying race] I couldn't take the pressure from Laurens and made a mistake. This time I was trying not to look in my mirrors."
Vanthoor admitted disappointment in his failure to take the lead and claim a double victory at Zolder.
"I did everything I could to overtake," he said. "Unfortunately, it didn't have the right ending, but I didn't want to take too many risks."
Third place went to the second WRT Audi driven by Edward Sandstrom and Frank Stippler.
Sandstrom jumped from fifth to third at the start, but neither driver was able to match the pace of its sister car over the course of the race.
Sebastien Loeb Racing duo Andreas Zuber and Mike Parisy repeated their fourth place from the opening race in their McLaren MP4-12C.
The third WRT Audi came home fifth after Rene Rast, who had taken over from Nikolas Mayr-Melnhof, took the Phoenix Racing Audi shared by Enzo Ide and Anthony Kumpen shortly after the pitstops.
Pro-Am honours went to the seventh-placed car, the Gravity Charouz Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Andreas Simonsen and Sergei Afanasiev.
Results - 39 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Kox/Rosina Reiter Lamborghini 1h00m57.072s 2. Ortelli/Vanthoor WRT Audi + 0.448s 3. Sandstrom/Stippler WRT Audi + 3.763s 4. Zuber/Parisy Loeb McLaren + 14.587s 5. Mayr-Melnhof/Rast WRT Audi + 17.899s 6. Ide/Kumpen Phoenix Audi + 33.774s 7. Simonsen/Afanasiev Gravity Charouz Mercedes + 34.284s 8. Khodair/Bueno Brazil BMW + 42.697s 9. Vieira/Campanico Novadriver Audi + 50.152s 10. Proczyk/Baumann Grasser Lamborghini + 51.254s 11. Zonta/Jimenez Brazil BMW + 53.585s 12. Salaquarda/Onidi AF Ferrari + 54.456s 13. Loeb/Parente Loeb McLaren + 1m04.792s 14. Shulzhitskiy/Reip RJN Nissan + 2 laps 15. Stovicek/Charouz Gravity Charouz Mercedes + 2 laps 16. Rosa/Bonifacio Seyffarth Mercedes + 3 laps Retirements: Ricci/Stumpf Rodrive Ford 19 laps Mascarello/Tozzo Rodrive Ford 10 laps Day/Buhk Gravity Charouz Mercedes 2 laps Ordonez/Buncombe RJN Nissan 1 lap
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| Series | GT |
| Author | Gary Watkins |
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