Blancpain Sprint: Bentley scores its first Sprint Series win

Bentley recorded its first Blancpain Sprint Series victory courtesy of Vincent Abril and Maximilian Buhk in the full-points main race at the Moscow Raceway.

Abril propelled the HTP Motorsport Bentley Continental GT3 into the lead from third place on the grid and found himself with a clear advantage after a multi-car first-corner incident.

Abril pulled away from BMW Team Brazil's Valdeno Brito, who lost out to the Rinaldi Ferrari of Marco Seefried on lap four. Abril was more than three seconds clear of Seefried's Ferrari 458 Italia when the mid-race pitstops began and Buhk emerged with a similar advantage at the front after the sequence was complete.

Abril said: "I got a fantastic start and used the Bentley's great grunt away from the line. I really didn't look in my mirrors until I had a gap."

Markus Winkelhock, who was driving solo in the Phoenix Audi R8 LMS ultra, jumped from fourth to second during the pitstops, although was unable to challenge the Bentley even before being given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release.

The Team Brazil BMW Z4 GT3 hung onto its inherited second position, with Atila Abreu withstanding an assault from Norbert Siedler in the Ferrari over the final third of the race.

WRT Audi drivers Stephane Richelmi and Stephane Ortelli finished fourth, less than a second down on the battle for second. Fifth place went to championship leaders Robin Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor, who came through from the back in their WRT Audi after failing to finish in the first race.

Vanthoor was closing on Siedler when he spun with 10 laps to go and although the Belgian only lost one place, he had to withstand a challenge from a recovering Winkelhock over the final couple of laps to hang on to fifth.

Originally on AUTOSPORT.com