december 14, 2015 - Audi

One-two-three win for new Audi R8 LMS at Sepang

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT wins ahead of Phoenix Racing
Second major endurance race win for new GT3 sports car
Heavy rain causes race to be interrupted twice

Audi Sport customer racing closes the 2015 racing season with a dream result in Malaysia. Stuart Leonard/Stéphane Ortelli/Laurens Vanthoor (GB/MC/B) won the Sepang 12 Hours for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in front of their teammates Enzo Ide/Christopher Haase/Christopher Mies (B/D/D). Third place went to Niki Mayr-Melnhof/Nicki Thiim/Markus Winkelhock (A/DK/D) from Phoenix Racing.

The weather in Malaysia made for a dramatic race. Two cloud bursts initially forced race control to interrupt the competition for an hour and 46 minutes and subsequently for another 53 minutes. As afterwards the participants started behind the safety car without the previous gaps being taken into account, thrilling position battles repeatedly ensued. As a result, two hours before the end of the race, the four fastest entrants were again lying within just four seconds of each other.

At this stage, the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT gained an advantage by making its pit stops within a caution period so that only little time was lost. Laurens Vanthoor took the lead while, following the driver change, the sister car of Christopher Mies initially failed to start and lost 46 seconds in the process. Mies began a recovery in rain, overtook Nicki Thiim and, on the final pit stop lap, took the lead. Vanthoor received fresh tires at this time and, as a result, took the lead again 39 minutes before the end of the race. With that, the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT secured a one-two result and Stéphane Ortelli won his last race for Audi Sport customer racing.