FIA GT1 – Successful Russian trip for Audi WRT

Sunday morning, at the Moscow Raceway, Stéphane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor triumphed at the end of the qualifying race for the Russian round of the FIA ​​GT1 world championship. A result that has been awaited since the inaugural round in Nogaro in April. The Monegasque and his Belgian sidekick took advantage of the problems encountered by their teammates Franck Stippler and Oliver Jarvis, who led this first race of the weekend for a long time. “The car was oversteering more and more and I was also having problems with the gearbox when I downshifted” lamented a Stippler who nevertheless did not shy away from his pleasure of climbing onto the third step of the podium. “The conditions were difficult, but the car behaved perfectly and, being first, I was always able to benefit from the dry line, Ortelli said for his part. Laurens helped me a lot on the radio by always keeping me informed of track conditions. »

In the afternoon, with even more critical weather conditions, the Belgian team once again performed remarkably well. But it was impossible to get in the way of McLaren MP4-12C from Hexis Racing in a state of grace. The Stippler-Jarvis pair, however, managed to once again close the top three, just ahead of their teammates. “The lack of grip caused us a lot of problems in this second race, explained Pierre Dieudonné. You never know exactly how the tires will react in these changing conditions. It got better at the end and this result is the best we could have hoped for, the two McLarens being untouchable. Of course, in terms of points scored, it would have been better to win the Championship Race. But we announced that we would not give up the title race before the end of the season and that is what we proved here. »

The overall outcome of this Moscow getaway is therefore ultimately very positive. “It was a good weekend for us and I am happy that we were able to win again and also take two more places on the podium, underlines team principal Vincent Vosse. This does a lot of good for the whole team. This is the greatest reward for our guys after this long journey, and our pilots did a great job in difficult conditions. »
 
With 90 points on the clock, Laurens Vanthoor and Stéphane Ortelli occupy fourth place in the general Drivers' classification, 37 points behind leaders Michael Bartels and Yelmer Buurman. With two rounds to go, mathematically, everything is still possible. Just like in the Teams Championship. The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT is in fact third, 42 points behind All-Inkl Münnich Motorsports, first. Next round on September 22 and 23 at the Nürburgring, Germany.