Marciello, Meadows take dominant second Hungary win
ASP Mercedes pair Raffaele Marciello and Michael Meadows took a commanding victory in a rain-affected second Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup race at the Hungaroring.
#88 Akka ASP Team Mercedes-AMG GT3: Raffaele Marciello, Michael Meadows
SRO
Marciello and Meadows converted pole position into Mercedes’ first sprint victory of the season to draw level on points with Audi pair Alex Riberas and Christopher Haase at the top of the drivers’ championship with one round remaining.
They had to survive a late safety car period, deployed when the Pro-Am class-leading Ferrari spun into the gravel with just over 10 minutes of the race remaining.
Marciello had built a sizeable lead at the start of the race, which was started behind the safety car due to heavy rain prior to the race.
Their advantage was wiped out, but Meadows was aided at the restart by an intense dogfight for second place behind him, in which Riberas fell from second place to fourth in the final two laps.
Riberas in the #1 WRT Audi ran wide at Turn 5 while trying to pressure race leader Meadows, allowing the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS driven by Simon Gachet and Christopher Haase into second place.
Zolder victor Steijn Schothorst further demoted Riberas on the final lap of the race to steal the final place on the podium alongside teammate Attempto Racing Audi teammate Kelvin van der Linde.
The Grasser Racing Lamborghinis ended the race in fifth and sixth. Race one winners Christian Engelhart and Mirko Bortolotti finishing in sixth just seven tenths adrift of their teammates Loris Hezemans and Franck Perera.
After taking over from Will Stevens, Dries Vanthoor had hauled the #2 WRT Audi from outside the top 10 to within reach of the podium but he spun at the penultimate corner on the final lap when scrapping with the other Audis.
He took the chequered flag in seventh, with Nico Jamin and Denis Bulatov taking eighth overall as well as Silver Cup honours in the #87 ASP Mercedes.
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