Nurburgring Blancpain GT: WRT Audis’ clash hands Aston Martin win – GT

Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer claimed victory in the second Blancpain GT World Challenge race at the Nurburgring for R-Motorsport after the leading WRT Audi team-mates took each other out.

Dries Vanthoor had led the majority of the race from pole in the #1 Audi R8 and the car maintained that place after the mandatory driver-change pitstop, when Vanthoor handed over to Ezequiel Perez Companc.

Perez Companc was soon caught by the #2 of team-mate Charles Weerts as well as Collard in the #76 Aston Martin before clumsily turning in on Weerts under braking for the first corner.

Both WRT Audis suffered race ending damage, handing Collard first place – which he turned into victory by a relatively comfortable 1.655 seconds.

Team-mate Kirchhofer had qualified the #76 fifth on the grid but dropped behind the fast-starting Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli at the start.

Caldarelli brought the Huracan GT3 into the pits at the start of the window along with his title rival Maro Engel in the #4 Black Falcon Mercedes.

Having received a drivethrough penalty for an unsafe release in Saturday’s opening race, Engel’s partner Luca Stolz was released after Kirchhofer’s R-Motorsport team-mate Hugo de Sadeleer entered his pit box.

This allowed Caldarelli’s team-mate Marco Mapelli to leapfrog Stolz on exit, dealing a crucial blow to the #4’s title challenge.

Jumping both Mapelli and Stolz was Collard, who set a series of subsequent fastest laps to close the gap to the leading Audis.

Before long, Collard was right on the tail of Weerts in the #2, who in turn was closing onto the back of Perez Companc who seemed to be struggling to keep pace.

Collard got a good run at the back of Weerts coming down the main straight with just over 12 minutes of the race left, forcing the Belgian teenager into a defensive move.

Weerts then dived to the inside of Perez Companc at Turn 1, but Perez Companc turned in on his team-mate.

Both Weerts and Perez Companc suffered damage, with the latter pulling off track after Turn 3 into retirement. Weerts managed to bring the #2 back to the pits, but he too was out.

Collard’s route to victory assured, he backed off in the closing stages and made sure of the win ahead of the Sainteloc Audi of Simon Gachet and Mapelli’s Lamborghini.

Stolz limited the damage to his and Engel’s title hopes with fourth overall ahead of the Lexus of Aurelien Panis in fifth.

Rik Breukers and Oscar Tunjo took Silver Cup honours with an impressive sixth overall in their WRT Audi R8, while the Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini and Louis Machiels fended off a spirited attack from the FFF Racing Lamborghini of Phil Keen and Hiroshi Hamaguchi in the Pro-Am category.

Florian Scholze and Wolfgang Triller took Am victory for HB Racing Ferrari, a full two laps ahead of Rory Penttinen and Stephen Earle.

Race two result