Belgium Dominates Qualifying Race 1 in Bahrain

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Charles Weerts and Mike den Tandt took a commanding lights-to-flag victory for Belgium in the first of two qualifying races for the FIA GT Nations Cup in Bahrain on Friday night. 

Driving a Belgian Audi Club Team WRT-prepared Audi R8 LMS GT3, the pair opened up a healthy margin early in the race and went on to win by 25 seconds.

An incident at the first corner took Denmark out of the race after Thailand’s Piti Bhirombhakdi spun the United Kingdom’s Chris Buncombe. 

Buncombe collected the Danish and Swedish entries, but was able to continue following a ten-minute safety car period.

He moved up the field to third before handing the AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GT3 over to Christopher Froggatt, who finished fourth.

Ayhancan Guven finished second in the Turkish-flagged RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he shares with Salih Yoluc.

Matteo Cressoni passed Froggatt late in the race to take third position for Italy, while the Brit was forced to settle for fourth.

The top five was completed by France, followed by Argentina and the Rinaldi Racing cars for Germany and Russia.

The second qualifying race will take place at 1:15 p.m. local time on Saturday, followed by the main race at 7:30 p.m.

RESULTS: Qualifying Race 1

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.