Baku Blancpain GT: Second WRT Audi win seals GT title for Vanthoor

Qualifying race winners Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos completed a clean sweep in Baku, controlling the main race from pole position in their WRT Audi R8.

Andy Soucek brought the Beechdean Aston Martin he shares with Jonathan Adam home in second, 2.225s behind, while Markus Winkelhock built on a solid first stint by Phoenix Audi team-mate Niki Meyr-Melnhof to snatch third place from WRT's Stephane Ortelli in the final laps.

Vanthoor's win delivered the Sprint Series teams' championship to WRT, and enabled him to usurp Maximilian Buhk for the GT drivers' title.

To secure the overall championship, Buhk only had to finish fifth or higher in the Mercedes SLS he shares with newly crowned Sprint Series champion Maximilian Gotz. But the car was eliminated from the race in a controversial collision with WRT's Rene Rast before he could take his turn at the wheel.

Rast had started 25th on the grid after an engine change and blitzed through the field to challenge Gotz for seventh place. He had just about edged ahead at the exit of the first hairpin on lap six when the rear end of his Audi broke away and pushed the front of the Mercedes into the wall.

At the front, Ramos and Adam were rarely separated by more than 1.5s until they pitted to hand over to their team-mates. The pitstops gave Vanthoor a six-second advantage over Soucek, until Stef Dusseldorp's Mercedes deposited oil on the track near the second chicane on lap 26.

Vanthoor took a more cautious approach in the area, which enabled Soucek to close two with three seconds, but Vanthoor continued to manage the gap.

"It was very difficult to find the balance there," said Vanthoor. "When I saw the oil I had a big lift to make sure I didn't make a mistake, because it was important to win the race."

Third place was hotly contested throughout. WRT's Stephane Richelmi held the position through his stint, but a delayed stop during the handover to Stephane Ortelli translated into a slimmer advantage over the following cars.

Martin Raddinger had been running fourth in the Schutz Porsche and would have stood to benefit, but he was baulked by Kevin Estre's recently-pitted McLaren before making his stop. Meyr-Melnhof had a clear run in to hand over to Winkelhock, who emerged with Ortelli in sight and then forced him into an error at the second hairpin.

The podium finishers shared a prize pot of €175,000.

Bakudaily.Az