GT: McLaren crew wins Blancpain Endurance title

McLaren's Rob Bell and Come Ledogar claimed the Blancpain Endurance title by one point, as Mirko Bortolotti, Rolf Iniechen and Christian Engelhart took Lamborghini's first 2016 victory at the Nurburgring.

After Bortolotti stormed from sixth to the lead in the opening stint, Blancpain GT Series debutant Engelhart's comfortable five-second margin over Laurens Vanthoor's WRT Audi evaporated when the safety car was required to repair barrier damage caused by Louis Machiels' Attempto Lamborghini.

Despite unrelenting pressure from Vanthoor in the closing laps, Engelhart held firm to win by 0.3 seconds in the Grasser team's first victory since Monza 2015.

"It was a really hard race, but all thanks to Mirko who did a fantastic job at the start and gained us all the positions into the lead," said Engelhart. "My job was to bring it home and it was a tough fight – he challenged me a lot, but it was a lot of fun also and I'm very happy to bring it home for the whole team."

Lucas Ordonez, Mitsunori Takaboshi and Alex Buncombe brought Nissan's podium drought to an end in third, ensuring the fourth-placed HTP Mercedes of Maxi Buhk, Dominik Baumann and Jazeman Jaafar fell just short of the points total needed to overhaul Garage 59 McLaren pair Bell and Ledogar for the title.

Fighting back from a tough qualifying session disrupted by red flags, Bell endured an uncharacteristically eventful opening stint and was hit with a drive-through penalty after making contact with Marco Bonanomi's Sainteloc Audi and the Attempto Lamborghini of Daniel Zampieri in separate incidents.

Bell and Ledogar's woes were compounded when stand-in driver Duncan Tappy was turned around by Luciano Bacheta and had to make an out-of-sequence pit stop to repair a right-rear puncture. This meant they were not in control of their own destiny and would only finish 30th in the race. But despite a nervy final few minutes for Bell and Ledogar, Buncombe's third place was enough to deliver them the title.

The Black Pearl Racing Ferrari of Daniel Keilwitz and Alexander Mattschull was one of several cars to benefit from pitting under a full course yellow and took Pro-Am honors in an excellent fifth overall, ahead of the polesitting Grasser Lamborghini of Luca Stolz, Michele Beretta and Andrea Piccini.

The #8 Bentley of Maxime Soulet, Wolfgang Reip and Andy Soucek slipped out of title contention during a difficult middle stint for Reip before finishing 19th.

Spa 24 Hour winners Alexander Sims and Philipp Eng's title chances were spoiled by qualifying 39th, but they recovered to finish 10th with teammate Nicky Catsburg.

Originally on Autosport.com