Sepang 12h: Victory and IGTC titles for Audi and Laurens Vanthoor

Laurens Vanthoor, Christopher Haase and Robin Frijns are the winners of the 12 hours of Sepang. The trio in the #15 Phoenix Racing’s Audi R8 LMS rounded 305 laps at the Sepang International Circuit, winning with one lap advantage over #911 Porsche 911 GT3R, driven by Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet. The #16 Audi finished in the third place, half a minute behind Porsche. The drivers in the #16 car were Rene Rast, Pierre Kaffer and Markus Winkelhock.

The Sepang 12-hour race is a part of the inaugural Intercontinental GT Challenge, together with Bathurst 12 Hour and 24 hours of Spa. Laurens Vanthoor, for whom it was the second victory at Sepang, became the 2016 IGTC champion as he finished on the podium both at Bathurst and Spa. Among manufacturers, Audi takes IGTC title.

Sepang 12h winners in the #15 Audi

The #50 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Michele Rugolo and Pasin Lathouras came up just short in a podium fight, finishing a close fourth behind the #16 Audi.

Among the other notable entrants, the fastest qualifiers in the #912 Porsche (Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz) finished fifth, delayed by a brake problem during the race. The #9 K-PAX McLaren 650 S GT3 of Alvaro Parente, Come Ledogar and Shane van Gisbergen started from the second place but early problems with suspension put them to the back of the field. They recovered to 10th place.

Photos: sepang12hours.com,