Ortelli/Vanthoor win race and title

WRT Audi drivers Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor secured the FIA GT Series title with victory in a dramatic championship race on the streets of Baku.

Ortelli took the lead at a confused start in which teammate and first race winner Niki Mayr-Melnhof was taken out of contention.

The WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra subsequently dropped to third shortly before a prolonged safety-car period to remove damaged kerbing at one of the chicanes, before Vanthoor resumed in second after the mandatory mid-race pit stops were complete.

The Belgian driver edged toward race leader Alon Day, who shared his Gravity Charouz Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG with Maximilian Buhk, and then took to the front when the Merc temporarily lost power.

Championship runners up Frank Stippler and Edward Sandstrom could only finish 13th and fifth of the registered points scorers in the Pro Cup after a slow pit stop.

The French Hexis Racing McLaren squad, which is set to close its doors after this race, claimed second place with its solo MP4-12C driven by Rob Bell and Kevin Estre, despite falling to the back of the field after Bell sustained a puncture on the opening lap.

Estre lay in eighth place after the pit stops, but quickly moved up the order and then took second in a dramatic incident at the first hairpin when he moved past Alvaro Parente's Loeb McLaren and Day in the Charouz Merc in one maneuver. Day managed to hold off Parente, who shared his McLaren with team boss Sebastien Loeb, to take the final podium spot.

Pro-Am honours went to the fifth-placed Grasser Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 shared by Hari Proczyk and Dominik Baumann.