Pole-Sitting WRT BMW in Control at Halfway in Suzuka

Team WRT’s No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO was in command of the Suzuka 1000km as the revived Intercontinental GT Challenge event hit the halfway mark.

Charles Weerts held a comfortable lead of 26 seconds in the car he shares with Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts after three hours and 15 minutes, with the No. 32 crew starting on pole and remaining in the overall lead throughout.

Van der Linde suffered a scare before the race had even begun, as he began the formation lap before the red lights had gone out, but escaped a penalty as he set about extending his lead over Maxime Martin’s No. 888 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

By the end of the opening stint van der Linde was 16 seconds to the good, and after Marciello took over from Weerts, the Italian driver extended the gap by a further ten seconds before handing back to Weerts for the fourth stint.

In the second stint, Absolute Racing Porsche driver Kevin Estre made an aggressive pass on the Grenier’s GruppeM Mercedes-AMG at the hairpin to grab second, but picked up a five-second time penalty in the process for making contact with his rival.

At the next round of stops, the No. 6 Origine Porsche jumped ahead of the GruppeM car, and with Laurin Heinrich at the wheel the retro Kremer Racing-liveried car was able to pass the NewMan-colored No. 7 machine, now in the hands of Patrick Pilet.

That was a reversal of a bold lap one move from Laurens Vanthoor that had put the No. 7 car ahead of the No. 6 that was started by Alessio Picariello.

At the halfway mark, Picariello led Vanthoor by 14 seconds, despite the No. 6 carrying floor damage, with Grenier a further six seconds back in fourth in the GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

Augusto Farfus ran fifth in the No. 31 BMW that was strangely not a match for its sister car in the opening half of the race, 54 seconds down on its sister car.

Sixth was the No. 2 Johor Racing JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg, followed by Dorian Boccolacci in the Pink Pig-liveried No. 23 Phantom Global Racing Porsche that lost time in its first pit stop due to a refueling problem.

Richard Lietz led the Bronze Cup runners in eighth overall in the No. 10 Absolute Porsche after passing the Team KRC BMW of Neil Verhagen, while Robert Renauer ran third in class aboard the No. 92 Herberth Motorsport Porsche.

Harmony Racing’s No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3, one of the most fancied runners in the class, was virtually ruled out of contention by an eight-minute pit stop due to a stuck wheel nut.

One lead contender to drop out of the running was the No. 14 Audi Sport Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which started third in the hands of Franky Cheng and was running fifth until it caught fire during its first pit stop at the one-hour mark.

The stricken Audi returned to the field after almost an hour in the garage.

Those problems meant that the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 was virtually unchallenged in Silver Cup in 12th overall, while leading the way in the Pro-Am class was the No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis.

At the halfway mark, the leader had completed 90 laps, meaning the titular 1000km distance was on course to be reached by the conclusion of the race.