​Podium in the Blancpain Endurance Series

Podium result for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in the season opener of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Monza (Italy): Title defender Laurens Vanthoor together with his team-mates Robin Frijns and Jean-Karl Vernay in the Audi R8 LMS ultra showed a strong recovery after starting from position nine and went on to finish in third place. As the winner was disqualified a few hours after the race, the Audi trio even advanced to second place. However, the result is provisional due to a pending appeal. DTM driver Edoardo Mortara finished a guest run in an R8 LMS ultra of Team Saintéloc Racing in ninth place. At Monza, the new Audi R8 LMS that was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in early March was tested in racing conditions as well. The brand new sports car proved reliable: Nico Müller, Stéphane Ortelli and Frank Stippler in an R8 LMS of Audi Sport Team WRT took sixth place and the sister car from Phoenix Racing with Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow and Markus Winkelhock completed the full racing distance as well.