GT: WRT Audi takes Brands Blancpain victory

WRT Audi pair Christopher Mies and Enzo Ide took the spoils in the Blancpain Sprint Cup round at Brands Hatch after a second-half safety car set up a thrilling conclusion.

Mies was leading the race by a small margin from Jules Szymkowiak, in the HTP Motorsport Mercedes started by Bernd Schneider, when the WRT Audis of Michael Meadows and Sergio Jimenez, which had been battling for 14th place, smashed into the barriers at the high-speed Westfield bend and came to rest in a dangerous place.

The safety car was scrambled with 20 minutes remaining, only to pick up the wrong car. After five minutes sorting everything out and five more minutes clearing the incident, that left seven laps of racing.

Mies, who emerged in front from the pit stops after Schneider had comfortably led the opening stint, had to position his car perfectly to fend off the charging Szymkowiak.

Maxime Soulet was one of the stars of the first half of the race, storming his M-Sport Bentley from 10th on the grid up to third by the stops after electing to use new rubber for the start. Andy Soucek took over the car and was right on the tail of Szymkowiak as he exited the pits, but on used Pirellis he had no answer to the pace of the leading pair.

An opportunist move in lapped traffic by Alvaro Parente, in the Garage 59 McLaren started by Rob Bell, moved him up to fourth ahead of the ISR Audi of Franck Perera. Parente did his utmost to deprive Soucek of third, but ran out of chances to get ahead of the Bentley.

Behind Perera, Christopher Haase brought the Sainteloc Audi he shared with Mike Parisy home in sixth place.

Early contact caused a puncture for Frederic Vervisch when he was running fourth, and Laurens Vanthoor could not bring the #1 WRT Audi back into the points.

Another pre-race favorite, the HTP Merc of pre-weekend Blancpain GT points leader Maximilian Buhk and Dominik Baumann, finished well down in the qualification race after a drive-through penalty for Baumann, who had pushed off Bell's McLaren, then recovered to seventh in the final.

The qualification race earlier in the day provided a comfortable win for Szymkowiak and Schneider, the young Dutchman getting the jump on polesitter Perera and setting up a victory that Schneider eventually wrapped up by a gargantuan 21 seconds.

Mies held off Clemens Schmid for third. Schmid was running fifth in the main race, only to lose a stack of time at his pit stop, meaning HTP teammate Jazemaan Jaafar was out of contention when he rejoined.

Originally on Autosport.com