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GT Racing
GT1: Vita4One BMW Wins Thrilling Qualifying Race In Zolder
Michael Bartels, Yelmer Buurman capitalize on late-race issue for All-Inkl.com Mercedes to take FIA GT1 World Championship Qualifying Race win...
Vita4One broke through to score its first victory in the FIA GT1 World Championship since its title-winning 2010 season. (Photo: Markus Berns/SRO)
Vita4One scored a surprise victory in Saturday's FIA GT1 World Championship Qualifying Race at Zolder, thanks to a late-race issue by the No. 38 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Markus Winkelhock, that deprived the All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport driver of a certain win in the wet-turned-dry battle.
Winkelhock held the lead following the decisive mid-race pit stop, which saw the pace-setting No. 33 WRT Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Oliver Jarvis and Laurens Vanthoor mistakenly take wet tires, and put the ex-F1 driver en route to victory until he slowed on track with an undetermined mechanical issue with only six minutes to go.
It handed the top spot to the No. 18 BMW Z4 GT3 of Michael Bartels, who fended off the sister All-Inkl.com car of Thomas Jager to give the Vita4One squad its first GT1 victory of the season.
“I was not sure which position I was in until the last five laps!” Bartels said. “I saw P2 and got a bit nervous. The car behind me, [Thomas] Jager, was pushing quite hard. It feels good to be back on the podium.”
Bartels and co-driver Yelmer Buurman, who made an impressive start from sixth on the grid in the wet, crossed the line 0.567 seconds ahead of the No. 37 All-Inkl.com machine of Jager and Nicky Pastorelli in second, which also benefited from the drying track conditions during the second half of the race.
“We’re really happy because in the beginning, it didn’t look like we were very competitive,” Jager said. “But after the stop with the slicks, it was better but I wasn’t able to overtake the BMW.”
A thrilling battle for what turned out to be third developed between the No. 9 Exim Bank Team China Porsche 997 GT3-R of Matt Halliday, Fred Makowiecki's Hexis McLaren MP4-12C and the sister Vita4One BMW of Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in the closing laps.
Third spot ultimately went to the Kiwi, who rebounded from a two-position grid penalty for crossing the white line in qualifying.
Despite his late-race troubles, the Mercedes of Winkelhock managed to finish sixth.
Hometown favorites and Nogaro winners Belgian Audi Club Team WRT appeared to have the 16-car field covered again, with Jarvis leading the opening stages of the race.
However, a miscommunication left both of the team's Audi R8 LMS Ultras on wet tires, which forced both Vanthoor and the No. 32 car of Frank Stippler to return to the pits for slicks and lose considerable ground. It relegated the pair of WRT Audis to 11th and 12th finishing positions, respectively.
Another front-runner to hit trouble was the No. 25 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo of Peter Kox, who lined up alongside Jarvis on the front row but was deemed to have jumped the start and handed an early drive-through penalty.
RESULTS: Qualifying Race
WATCH the FIA GT1 World Championship Zolder Championship Race, LIVE! on SPEED2, Sunday 8 a.m. ET. Click Here for details.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
Winkelhock held the lead following the decisive mid-race pit stop, which saw the pace-setting No. 33 WRT Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Oliver Jarvis and Laurens Vanthoor mistakenly take wet tires, and put the ex-F1 driver en route to victory until he slowed on track with an undetermined mechanical issue with only six minutes to go.
It handed the top spot to the No. 18 BMW Z4 GT3 of Michael Bartels, who fended off the sister All-Inkl.com car of Thomas Jager to give the Vita4One squad its first GT1 victory of the season.
“I was not sure which position I was in until the last five laps!” Bartels said. “I saw P2 and got a bit nervous. The car behind me, [Thomas] Jager, was pushing quite hard. It feels good to be back on the podium.”
Bartels and co-driver Yelmer Buurman, who made an impressive start from sixth on the grid in the wet, crossed the line 0.567 seconds ahead of the No. 37 All-Inkl.com machine of Jager and Nicky Pastorelli in second, which also benefited from the drying track conditions during the second half of the race.
“We’re really happy because in the beginning, it didn’t look like we were very competitive,” Jager said. “But after the stop with the slicks, it was better but I wasn’t able to overtake the BMW.”
A thrilling battle for what turned out to be third developed between the No. 9 Exim Bank Team China Porsche 997 GT3-R of Matt Halliday, Fred Makowiecki's Hexis McLaren MP4-12C and the sister Vita4One BMW of Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in the closing laps.
Third spot ultimately went to the Kiwi, who rebounded from a two-position grid penalty for crossing the white line in qualifying.
Despite his late-race troubles, the Mercedes of Winkelhock managed to finish sixth.
Hometown favorites and Nogaro winners Belgian Audi Club Team WRT appeared to have the 16-car field covered again, with Jarvis leading the opening stages of the race.
However, a miscommunication left both of the team's Audi R8 LMS Ultras on wet tires, which forced both Vanthoor and the No. 32 car of Frank Stippler to return to the pits for slicks and lose considerable ground. It relegated the pair of WRT Audis to 11th and 12th finishing positions, respectively.
Another front-runner to hit trouble was the No. 25 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo of Peter Kox, who lined up alongside Jarvis on the front row but was deemed to have jumped the start and handed an early drive-through penalty.
RESULTS: Qualifying Race
WATCH the FIA GT1 World Championship Zolder Championship Race, LIVE! on SPEED2, Sunday 8 a.m. ET. Click Here for details.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
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