FIA GT – Loeb and Parente take an SLR double to Navarra

This morning, Sébastien Loeb and Alvaro Parente won their third qualifying race of the season in the FIA ​​GT Series. The Frenchman and the Portuguese then began to cross their fingers to confirm in the main race, which brings 25 points. At the start, the nine-time world rally champion held off his teammate Andreas Zuber, driving the second McLaren of Sébastien Loeb Racing. But the Austrian will never manage to gain the advantage over the Frenchman. After the change of drivers, Alvaro Parente completed the job in a very good manner in front of Mike Parisy who assured the Alsatian team a resounding double.

The Loeb-Parente pair finally saw their good performances throughout the season rewarded by bagging a fourth victory in all races combined. The podium of this Spanish round is completed by the Audi R8 LMS ultra n°13 of the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entrusted to the Swede Edward Sandström and the German Frank Stippler. The two men had an excellent operation in the championship, as they took advantage of the misfortunes of their stablemates Laurens Vanthoor and Stéphane Ortelli to come back to five points in the general classification.

After Ortelli was sent into a spin on the first loop, the Monegasque and the Belgian managed to make a superb comeback to return to the edge of the top three. Alas, with a few laps to go, Vanthoor was forced to stop in the pits after his left rear brake disc caught fire. And it was ultimately in 15th place that the two men finished.

In the general classification, Vanthoor-Ortelli remain in command with 101 points on the clock. They are five lengths ahead of their teammates Edward Sandström-Frank Stippler, Niki Mayr-Melnhof is third with 75 units, and the duo Sébastien Loeb-Alvaro Parente fourth with 63. The protagonists of the FIA ​​GT Series now meet in Baku ( Azerbaijan) for the grand final from November 22 to 24.