Laurens Vanthoor has been crowned champion of the FIA GT World Cup at Macau despite ending the race on his roof following a violent crash that caused the event to be red flagged.
As part of the Macau Grand Prix weekend, drivers and manufacturers competed for the second FIA GT World Cup, with Mercedes’ Maro Engel chasing a third straight race win around the streets of the principality.
Vanthoor started the race from pole position for Audi, and led the early part of the race before the red flag was shown following a shunt for Ricky Capo that damaged the barrier.
The suspension of the race meant that it would be completed to a time limit, with 18 minutes on the clock for the restart.
After being informed of a five-second time penalty for moving ahead of Engel before the start, Porsche’s Earl Bamber made an early move to take the lead in the hope of creating a gap that would negate the penalty.
However, the race was red flagged once again when Vanthoor flipped his Audi while trying to catch Bamber, hitting an inside curb that sent him flying.
Once Vanthoor’s car was removed from the track, four minutes remained on the clock, prompting officials to call the race with just four laps on the board.
With countback and Bamber’s penalty accounted for, Vanthoor was declared the winner by 3.5 seconds from Kevin Estre, while Engel ended the race third. With his penalty applied, Bamber was classified fourth ahead of Adderly Fong.
You can see full race highlights courtesy of the FIA below.
#FIAGTWorldCup - Race highlights pic.twitter.com/js4PiALhOf
— FIA (@fia) November 20, 2016