GT: Vanthoor survives flip to win Macau farce

Laurens Vanthoor took a bizarre win in a FIA GT World Cup race at Macau that was red-flagged because of his own high-speed roll.

The race featured just one lap of racing thanks to lengthy barrier repairs following a first-lap crash that resulted in a red flag.

Vanthoor (below) won Saturday's qualification race, so started from pole position in his WRT Audi. He got the jump at the start of the race, while Earl Bamber just managed to cling on to second from the sister Manthey-run Porsche of Kevin Estre. But in doing so, Bamber forced the Mercedes of Maro Engel to clip the barrier at the Reservoir kink, and as a result the New Zealander was given a five-second time penalty.

The race was red-flagged after Ricky Capo crashed his BMW Z4 at Fisherman's Bend on the first lap. But the clocks continued counting down, and there were only 15 minutes left when the action resumed.

Bamber towed past Vanthoor cleanly into the Mandarin Oriental kink, before the Belgian slid wide and into the barrier. The impact lifted the front of the car and, as air got under the front end, it continued to raise the Audi until it flipped onto its roof.

The race was immediately red-flagged again and, predictably, the allotted time ran out.

Vanthoor jumped out of the wreckage of the Audi unscathed, to roars of approval from the crowd, and was awarded victory despite causing the stoppage.

Article 16 of the FIA GT World Cup sporting regulations states that a driver who causes a red flag faces a range of possible sanctions, including exclusion from the results, but the stewards opted not to act.

Bamber's penalty promoted Estre to second and Engel to third.

Engel's first-turn incident had allowed Adderly Fong to briefly run fourth in the Absolute Racing-run Audi, before Engel repassed Fong at Lisboa.

Bamber was classified fourth from Fong, with Renger van der Zande (Mercedes) completing the top six.

The lack of racing precluded an anticipated charge from Edoardo Mortara, who spun out of second place and into the barriers at the Reservoir kink at the start of Saturday's qualification race.

The race was stopped after Nico Muller crashed his Audi heavily at the start of lap two, and Mortara was able to resume without losing a lap after having attention to the car in the pits.

Mortara then took out Darryl O'Young's Porsche on the last lap at Maternity Bend, earning himself a grid penalty for Sunday's final, in which he was classified 13th.

Originally on Autosport.com