Vanthoor-Ortelli: Winning duo at Nogaro

AF Corse was best placed to play for victory thanks to the performance of Toni Vilander who took pole with the Ferrari 458 Italy. But his teammate Fili Salaquarda missed his start, leaving the Lamborghini Gallardo of Tomas Enge and the R8 LMS of Team WRT to fight for the race lead. The No. 24 of Reiter Engineering occupied the lead of the race and the McLaren Parente-Demoustier's MP4-12C came out of the pits in front of the two German cars, but Stéphane Ortelli managed to take the advantage over Hexis driver Grégoire Demoustier and leader Albert von Thurn und Taxis to win ahead of the second R8 LMS of the Team WRT.

Laurens Vanthoor admits to having had a little difficulty adapting to driving a touring car at the start of the race, the Belgian coming from the world of racing. car. “I was a little nervous at the start because it was my first GT race with a roof over my head. But it's comfortable, I stayed dry. I had a little trouble at the start until I overtook the Ferrari and then I was able to gradually get closer to Tomas Enge. » Stéphane Ortelli completed the job in spectacular fashion by taking the lead of the qualifying race with authority. “It's a big victory for us, I can't believe we won the first race. We tested in the wet and I didn't expect us to be so consistent on wet ground. The double for Audi only makes it even more incredible. »

The start of the Championship race will be given tomorrow from 14:15 p.m.

Discover the report on the Easter Cups in Nogaro produced by our special correspondent in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version and from Wednesday on newsstands.