GT: WRT pair stripped of second for unsafe release

Laurens Vanthoor and Frederic Vervisch have lost their second place in Sunday's Blancpain Sprint race at the Hungaroring after the pair received a post-race penalty for an unsafe release.

Vanthoor emerged from the pits right behind the race-winning HTP Mercedes of Dominik Baumann and Maximillian Buhk, but faded in the latter stages in the WRT Audi and came under pressure from team-mate Christopher Mies.

Despite crossing the line in second, the leading WRT car was handed a 30-second retrospective penalty for its unsafe release, dropping Vanthoor and Vervisch to eighth in the final classification.

Mies and co-driver Enzo Ide, who won the qualifying race on Saturday, were promoted to second in the amended results, with Will Stevens and Rene Rast completing the podium in another WRT Audi.

A disastrous weekend for the Garage 59 McLaren of Rob Bell and Alvaro Parente means Mies and Ide now lead the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup points standings, 17 ahead of Baumann and Buhk.

Vanthoor and Vervisch still have a mathematical chance of the title, but will have to take pole position and win both races at Barcelona, without any of their rivals scoring.

Originally on Autosport.com