By alley - May 15, 2016, 3:01 PM ET

GT: HTP Mercedes takes Silverstone victory

HTP Mercedes drivers Dominik Baumann, Jazeman Jaafar and Maximilian Buhk claimed a narrow victory in the Silverstone round of the Blancpain GT Series. The trio triumphed aboard their Mercedes-AMG GT3 by less than a second over the WRT Audi R8 LMS of Frederic Vervisch and brothers Dries and Laurens Vanthoor at the end of the three-hour BGTS Endurance Cup event.

Buhk appeared to have the race in the bag after edging away from Laurens Vanthoor after the final round of pit stops, holding an advantage of five seconds when the safety car came out with 40 minutes to go.

The Audi was less than half a second behind after a protracted yellow-flag period, but Buhk was able eke out an advantage over the final minutes of the race. The German stretched his advantage to move than two seconds before backing off over the final lap.

"I was just focusing on the restart and trying to pull a gap, and thankfully it worked out," Buhk said. "I could see him in my mirrors and really pushed."

Baumann had completed the first stint in third place behind the Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Mirko Bortolotti and the ISR Audi driven by Franck Perera.

Jaafar resumed in the same position behind Rolf Ineichen in the Lamborghini and the WRT Audi with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel, which had leaped up from seventh after short-fueling during its first stop.

The Audi and Mercedes passed the Lamborghini in the Village complex on lap 37 and then Jaafar snuck inside Vanthoor at Brooklands to take the lead. Jaafar was able to pull away into a six-second lead before handing over to Buhk before the next round of stops closed up the lead battle.

The Grasser Lamborghini, in which Jeroen Bleekemolen completed the race, ended up more than 20s down in third position.

Rowe BMW driver Philipp Eng overhauled the second of the HTP Mercedes with Indy Dontje at the wheel to claim fourth position in the M6 GT3 he shared with Maxime Martin and Alexander Sims. Dontje, who shared the car with Clemens Schmid and Luciano Bacheta, made an attempt to repass the BMW at the end of the final lap, finishing just over a tenth behind.

Shane van Gisbergen claimed sixth position in the closing stages in the Garage 59 McLaren 650S GT3 he shared with Rob Bell and Colm Ledogar.

Pro-am honors went to the Black Falcon Mercedes of Maro Engel, Miguel Toril and Oliver Morley, which came from third to first in Engel's hands over the final two laps.

RESULT - 83 LAPS

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Pro	D.Baumann, J.Jaafar, M.Buhk	HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	3h01m35.700s
2	Pro	D.Vanthoor, F.Vervisch, L.Vanthoor	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	0.963s
3	Pro	R.Ineichen, J.Bleekemolen, M.Bortolotti	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	22.163s
4	Pro	A.Sims, P.Eng, M.Martin	ROWE Racing	BMW	23.814s
5	Pro	L.Bacheta, I.Dontje, C.Schmid	HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	23.938s
6	Pro	C.Ledogar, R.Bell, S.Gisbergen	Garage 59	McLaren	29.114s
7	Pro	G.Guilvert, M.Parisy, C.Haase	Sainteloc Junior Team	Audi	31.111s
8	Pro	V.Abril, G.Smith, S.Kane	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	33.675s
9	Pro	A.Garcia, W.Stevens, N.Muller	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	45.017s
10	Pro	F.Babini, D.Zampieri, P.Niederhauser	Attempto Racing	Lamborghini	46.640s
11	Pro	H.Haupt, A.Simonsen, A.Christodoulou	Black Falcon	Mercedes	47.593s
12	Pro	N.Catsburg, S.Dusseldorp, J.Klingmann	ROWE Racing	BMW	49.333s
13	Pro	S.Leonard, M.Meadows, R.Frijns	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	50.265s
14	Pro	E.P-Companc, A.Balzan, R.Giammaria	Spirit of Race	Ferrari	56.834s
15	Pro	M.Stockinger, F.Salaquarda, F.Stippler	ISR	Audi	58.795s
16	Pro	P.Lathouras, A.P.Guidi, M.Rugolo	Spirit of Race	Ferrari	1m02.901s
17	Pro-Am	O.Morley, M.Toril, M.Engel	Black Falcon	Mercedes	1m07.602s
18	Pro-Am	A.Al Harthy, D.Modell, J.Adam	Oman Racing Team	Aston Martin	1m09.886s
19	Pro-Am	H.Hassid, P.Giauque, F.Perera	ISR	Audi	1m10.736s
20	Pro	R.Baptista, S.Jimenez, F.Albuquerque	Team WRT	Audi	1 Lap
21	Pro	M.Beretta, A.Piccini, L.Stolz	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	1 Lap
22	Pro	S.Moore, A.Fontana, A.Watson	Garage 59	McLaren	1 Lap
23	Pro	A.De Leener, P.Kox, P.Kaffer	Team WRT	Audi	1 Lap
24	Pro	D.Cammish, J.Gounon, C.Zochling	Konrad Motorsport	Lamborghini	1 Lap
25	Pro-Am	D.Perfetti, L.Cazenave, M.Lyons	Akka ASP	Mercedes	1 Lap
26	Pro-Am	S.Costantini, G.Berton, M.Beretta	Ombra Racing	Lamborghini	1 Lap
27	Pro-Am	T.O.-Cole, I.Loggie, C.MacLeod	Team Parker Racing	Bentley	1 Lap
28	Pro-Am	M.Simmons, R.Sarazin, S.Walkinshaw	Nissan GT Academy Team RJN	Nissan	1 Lap
29	Pro-Am	M.Broniszewski, A.Bonacini, A.Rizzoli	Kessel Racing	Ferrari	1 Lap
30	Pro-Am	M.Koebolt, G.Roda, S.Colombo	BMW Team Italia	BMW	1 Lap
31	Pro-Am	J.Pisarik, M.Malucelli	Scuderia Praha	Ferrari	1 Lap
32	Pro-Am	M.Poole, R.Abra, J.Osborne	Barwell Motorsport	Lamborghini	2 Laps
33	Am	S.Vancampenh., P.Ehret	Rinaldi Racing	Ferrari	2 Laps
34	Pro-Am	M.Ishikawa, L.Bontempelli, G.Fisichella	AF Corse	Ferrari	2 Laps
35	Pro-Am	O.Grotz, K.Ojjeh, J.Darras	Boutsen Ginion Racing	BMW	2 Laps
36	Pro-Am	A.Mattschull, S.Parrow, D.Keilwitz	Rinaldi Racing	Ferrari	2 Laps
37	Am	M.Ricci, J-L.Beaubelique, G.Vannelet	Akka ASP	Mercedes	2 Laps
38	Am	M.Konopka, A.Lewandowski, T.Myszkowski	ARC Bratislava	Lamborghini	2 Laps
39	Pro-Am	G.Lallement, M.Rostan, M.Bonanomi	Sainteloc Junior Team	Audi	2 Laps
40	Am	C.Cooper, C.Harris, D.Pierce	Team Parker Racing	Bentley	3 Laps
41	Am	G.Kondakov, A.Moiseev, R.Ragazzi	AF Corse	Ferrari	4 Laps
42	Pro-Am	T.Cornac, R.Narac, M.Jousse	IMSA Performance	Porsche	4 Laps
43	Pro	L.Frey, S.Ortelli, A.Costa	Emil Frey Racing	Jaguar	4 Laps
44	Pro-Am	M.Van Splunteren, L.Machiels, J.Mul	Attempto Racing	Lamborghini	4 Laps
45	Am	M.Zanuttini, V.Gitlin, L.Talbot	Kessel Racing	Ferrari	7 Laps
46	Pro	M.Soulet, W.Reip, A.Soucek	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	8 Laps
47	Am	R.Ricci, N.Stievenart, T.Nicolle	CMR by Sport Garage	Ferrari	23 Laps
-	Am	S.Earle, B.Delhez, D.Perel	Kessel Racing	Ferrari	Retirement
-	Am	P.Mann, F.Guedes, R.Mastronardi	Spirit of Race	Ferrari	Retirement
-	Pro	M.Seefried, R.Salikhov, N.Siedler	Rinaldi Racing	Ferrari	Retirement
-	Pro-Am	P.Keen, L.Machitski, M.Mapelli	Barwell Motorsport	Lamborghini	Retirement
-	Pro	L.Ordonez, M.Takaboshi, A.Buncombe	Nissan GT Academy Team RJN	Nissan	Retirement
-	Pro-Am	C.Mateu, J.Haring, N.Armindo	Attempto Racing	Porsche	Withdrawn