Audi Sport Team WRT wins the Suzuka 10 Hours

The fourth round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge was largely dominated by the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, and more particularly by the No. 25 Audi Sport Team WRT of Dries Vanthoor - Frédéric Vervisch - Kelvin van der Linde, logical winners in the end of the ten hours of racing at Suzuka.

Published on 25/08/2019 à 13:34

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Audi Sport Team WRT wins the Suzuka 10 Hours

The car with the rings first saw the #6 BMW M3 GT42 – Team Schnitzer of Augusto Farfus – Nick Yelloly – Martin Tomczyk and n)34 – Walkenhorst Motorsport of Christian Krognes – Nick Catsburg – Mikkel Jensen lead the proceedings in start of the race before the #34 was eliminated from the fight following contact.

Audi and Team WRT bided their time by taking the advantage over the #42 BMW after a drive-through inflicted on the latter for not respecting the minimum time in the pit lane.

From then on, no one will come to challenge the leadership of the car of Vincent Vosse's troops which ultimately wins in front of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°999 – Mercedes-AMG GruppeM Racing of Raffaele Marciello – Maxi Buhk – Maro Engel, Buhk carrying out a good accounting operation in the championship by taking sole lead in the Drivers' classification.

@audisport and @followWRT win the 2019 #Suzuka10H!

Congratulations to @vanthoordries1, Frederic Vervisch and @KelvinvdLinde who brought the #25 R8 LMS GT3 across the line.

One word: dominant. #IntGTC pic.twitter.com/JcPoAOjL8D

— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) August 25

Team Absolute signe un podium avec la Porsche 911 GT3 R n°912 de Dirk Werner – Matt Campbell – Dennis Olsen, lauréats des 12 Heures de Bathurst et qui limitent la casse au classement du championnat face à Maxi Buhk.

Maxi Götz, leader with Buhk of theIGTC before this Japanese round, finished 4th in the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT77 – Mercedes-AMG Craft-Bamboo Racing, shared with Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz.

The top 5 is completed by the No. 6 BMW M3 GT42 – Team Schnitzer de Farfus – Yelloly – Tomczyk, who spared no effort in the peloton, making several virile overtakes in the fight for the top 5, notably against to the No. 3 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT35 – KCMG of Tsugio Matsuda – Katsumasa Chiyo – Joshua Burdon, 6th under the checkered flag.

In contention for the podium, the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT125 Evo – Audi Sport Team Absolute Racing of Markus Winkelhock – Christopher Haase – Christopher Mies lost big during his final pit stop, dropping by almost a minute.

SunEnergy1, with the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT75 of Nico Bastian – Mikael Grenier – Kenny Habul pockets the Silver Cup while the Pro-Am category also goes to Mercedes with the No. 43 – Strakka Racing of Dominik Baumann – Christina Nielsen – Adrian D’Silva.

Discover the full report of the Suzuka 10 Hours, in issue 2231 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and on newsstands this Wednesday.