Sepang 12 Hours: Victory for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT clinched double victory at Sepang 12 Hours race today at famous Grand Prix track in Indonesia. The winners were Laurens Vanthoor, Stéphane Ortelli and Stuart Leonard in #17 Audi R8 LMS. They crossed the finish line with eight second advantage ahead sister car #150 of Christopher Mies, Enzo Ide and Christopher Haase. Third placed car was also Audi, driven by Markus Winkelhock, Nicki Thiim and Niki Mayr-Melnhof of Phoenix Racing.

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Today’s race was one of the most difficult editions of the Sepang 12 Hours ever. Bad weather conditions caused two red-flagged periods. Because of that we saw a nail-biting finish and fight for the lead which lasted until the end. Laurens Vanthoor, who was back on track after recovery from injury in Blancpain Sprint race at Misano ten weeks ago, took the lead 30 minutes from the end and remained on the top until chequered flag.

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Three Audis are only cars which rounded 228 laps during the race. Fourth placed #55 McLaren 650S GT3 of FFF Racing Team by ACM was one lap behind the leaders. Drivers were Andrea Caldarelli, Andrew Watson and Hiroshi Hamaguchi. One of two Bentley’s factory cars finished fifth. #8 Continental GT3 was driven by Maxime Soulet, Maxi Buhk and Andy Soucek.

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The other classes were dominated by the #23 Giti Topspeed Racing Lamborghini and the #86 Wing Hin Motorsport Toyota, winning GTC and Touring Car classes respectively. The polesitter in the GTC class, the #69 Team Fydis Aylezo Lamborghini, had an unfortunate opening hour of the race, when the car caught fire during the first pitstop. The Huracan was able to continue, but lost a lot of time. The other Lamborghini, the #23 Giti Topspeed Racing car took the lead and dominated the rest of the race, and eventually won with a five lap advantage over the #7 Team NZ Motorsport Porsche and the #26 B-Quick Racing Audi.

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Photos: sepang12hours.com