But for a brief challenge from the Veloce McLaren – race-winner all the back in round one at Bathurst – it’d be the #4 UOL Mercedes that would hold second through the mid-point as the leading Audi had dragged almost 30 seconds clear. However it seemed that the Ferraris were having much better race pace than qualifying times, with the silver class RennWelten eSports Red car in third overall and the works Pro entry now up to fifth in class.
The Veloce and William-AMG cars were providing the most entertainment, but eventually both were adjudged to have caused avoidable collisions with each other and collected a five-second penalty each.
As they slipped back a little, the Ferraris came to the fore again. With the race entering its final hour and darkness falling on the circuit, both the silver class RennWelten car and the works car – now driven by Jordan Sherratt – leapt past all but the leading Audi.
Tobias Gronewald, now in the Unicorns of Love car, had designs on Sherratt’s class second, but with just three laps to go he ran wide in turn one and fell afoul of the totting-up system to earn a drive-through penalty. To add insult to injury, and while serving the drive-through Gronewald also earned five seconds for a collision with Sherratt in the Triangle.
That allowed the Williams-AMG car past into third in class, which is where it would finish. Having been in the lead since the incident in the second hour, the Williams Esports Audi car took the win by almost 30 seconds from the leading Silver class car of RennWelten Red, with Sherratt’s Ferrari the next Pro car in third overall another 15 seconds back.
The result means Williams-AMG has extended its championship lead slightly over the UOL team, to 18 points, while Scuderia Ferrari is still just in contention for the title a further 12 points behind.
Intercontinental GT Challenge Suzuka 10 Hours Results
- Williams Esports (Crossland, Fiala, Rodrigues, Van Der Velde – Audi R8 GT3 Evo) – 294 laps
- Scuderia Ferrari (Capoccia, Harteveld, Riley, Sherrat – Ferrari 296 GT3) +42.965
- Williams Esports (Blajer, McCormack, Schoniger – Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo) +1:03.492