Van Der Linde Declared Race 1 Winner after Post-Race Penalties

Photo: Australian GT

Kelvin van der Linde has been declared the winner of the first Australian GT Championship race at Albert Park, following a series of post-race time penalties issued.

The South African driver, who initially finished second to the Supabarn Supermarkets Audi R8 LMS of Ash Walsh, is now credited with the win, following a review of the race start, which Walsh was given a 10-second time penalty for.

The ruling, which dropped Walsh to third, came nearly 48 hours after the completion of the race, and following the second race of the weekend on Friday.

“Australian GT regulations state that the field, led by the pole sitter, must line up in formation and cross directly over the marked grid boxes until the control line,” a statement from the series read.

“Those in the pack must remain in line, and not pull out of line until they’ve crossed the start finish line.

“After reviewing the start, officials deemed there to be a number of infractions of this process, and elected to add a time penalty to some driver’s overall race result.”

A total of ten cars received penalties in the race, including exclusion for the Rosso Verde Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Benny Simonsen.

The revised result will see van der Linde’s Valvoline Audi start from the pole in Saturday’s Race 3, which gets underway at 12:05 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Race 1 (Revised)

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John