2016 FIA GT World Cup
The 2016 FIA GT World Cup was a Grand Touring motor race held in the autonomous territory of Macau on the streets of the city on 20 November. It was the second annual edition of the event and the ninth time overall that GT3-specification machinery had competed in Macau. In contrast to the 2015 race, it was not contested as a non-championship GT Asia Series race. The event promoter, the Automobile General Association Macau-China, appointed motorsports organiser Stéphane Ratel Organisation to help bring a grid together. The race itself was made up of two races: a twelve-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the four-lap main race.
The main race was won by Audi Sport Team WRT driver Laurens Vanthoor in a R8 LMS from the pole position, having won the event's Qualification Race the previous afternoon. Vanthoor passed his teammate Edoardo Mortara on the rolling start and kept the lead for the rest of the qualifying race to win. Vanthoor led the first four laps of the main race until Earl Bamber in a Manthey Racing-entered Porsche 911 GT3 R passed him at the start of lap five. Soon after, Vanthoor caused the race to end prematurely when he went airborne and landed on the roof of his car after hitting a barrier. Race organisers counted back the results to the end of lap four and Vanthoor was declared the winner, Kévin Estre of Manthey Racing was second and Mercedes-AMG Driving Academy driver Maro Engel completed the podium in third.
Background and entry list
The 2016 FIA GT World Cup was confirmed as being held at a FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting on 4 March 2016 and the FIA subsequently opened the tender for an official tyre and fuel supplier for the race. It was the second running of the event and the ninth annual edition of Grand Touring cars in Macau. The FIA GT World Cup took place at the 22-turn Guia Circuit on 20 November with three preceding days of practice and qualifying. For the 2016 event, the FIA changed the regulations as to how manufacturers could win the FIA GT World Cup for Manufacturers Championship. It discarded the points system used in the 2015 race and chose to award the accolade to the first-placed overall manufacturer at the conclusion of the main race. Stéphane Ratel, the founder of the motorsports organisation Stéphane Ratel Organisation, stated that the changes were made to simplify the race, "It doesn't make sense to have points for a one-off event. The manufacturer that wins gets both titles." Pirelli was later confirmed as the race's official tyre supplier.In order to compete in the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, drivers had to compete in a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile -regulated championship race based on GT3 regulations in the previous two seasons or had a vast amount of experience in Grand Touring cars. Manufacturers were permitted to enter up to two drivers through themselves and were limited to platinum ranked drivers; gold rated entrants could only compete with privateers. Bronze and silver rated entrants were eligible on a case by case basis at the discretion of the FIA GT World Cup Committee. The entry list of the FIA GT World Cup was released on 6 October. 23 drivers from categories such as the Blancpain Endurance Series, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the GT Asia Series, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, Super GT and the Porsche Carrera Cup were featured in the final entry list. It included drivers such as the event's defending winner Maro Engel, 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans co-winner Earl Bamber, DTM driver Edoardo Mortara, 2000 Macau Grand Prix victor André Couto and 2013 FIA GT Series champion Laurens Vanthoor.
Practice and qualifying
Two half an hour practice sessions were held before the race on Sunday: one on Thursday afternoon and one on Friday morning. Bamber set the fastest time of the first practice session in the No. 911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R with a lap of 2 minutes, 19.253 seconds, more than two-tenths of a seconds faster than any one else. His closest challenger was Mortara's No. 7 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS in second and his teammate Vanthoor in the sister No. 8 vehicle was third. Fourth was Kévin Estre's No. 912 Manthey Porsche and fifth was the No. 991 Craft-Bamboo Racing car of Richard Lyons, the highest-placed privateer. Rounding out the top ten were Engel, Darryl O'Young, Nico Müller, Renger van der Zande and Adderly Fong. The session was red flagged when Fong made an error and crashed his Bentley Continental GT at Police bend. His car was removed from the track by crane because it created a multi-car traffic jam. In the second practice session, Engel's No. 1 Mercedes-AMG Driving Academy car set a new GT3 track lap record with a 2 minutes, 17.153 seconds time in the final five minutes. Mortara was a second adrift in second, Bamber came third and Vanthoor fourth. Estre was fifth with Müller the highest-ranked privateer in sixth. Cheng Congfu, Van der Zande, Fong and Nick Catsburg completed the top ten. Twenty minutes into second practice, Lyons was caught out by his car's anti-lock braking system and hit the barrier on the hill between Paiol and Police corners. The impact broke his front-right suspension, stopping the session and his team had to rebuild the car for qualifying.Friday afternoon's qualifying session lasted for half an hour. The session was used to determine the starting order for the qualification race using the competitor's fastest lap times. Vanthoor led after everyone set their first timed laps before two stoppages curtailed on circuit driving. Going through Mandarin Oriental Bend, Pasin Lathouras lost control of the No. 50 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 and hit thhe right-hand side barrier with the rear of his vehicle and stopped on the circuit. Lyons ran over the inside kerbs approaching the same turn and spun violently into the wall with the rear of his car twice. Mortara used a new set of tyres to better the GT3 track record and earn pole position with a 2 minutes,16.862 seconds lap in his last race as an Audi works driver. He was joined on the grid's front row by Vanthoor and Bamber was the best-placed Porsche driver in third. Fourth-placed Engel glanced the barriers and his car sustained minor damage to its rear, which knocked it out of alignment. Müller, Estre, Van der Zande, Catsburg, Fong, Cheng rounded out the top ten. Fabian Plentz was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten because his best lap was 3.3 seconds off Mortara's pace. He was ahead of Mirko Bortolotti in the faster of the two FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3s. The Ferraris of Hiroki Yoshimoto and Lathouras were 13th and 15th; Marchy Lee separated them in 14th. Couto led Lyons, Ricky Capo, Philip Ma, Kuo Hsin Kuo, John Shen and Tommy Tulpe as the last drivers to set a lap time. O'Young set no qualifying lap because his team could not repair his car due to a heavy structural damage to it in an accident during the second practice session that broke the top mounting and cracked the chassis.
Qualifying classification
Qualifying Race
The qualifying race to set the grid order for the main race started in cloudy and dry weather at 12:10 Macau Standard Time on 19 November. Craft-Bamboo Racing withdrew Lyons because it could not repair his car before the event because of heavy damage sustained to its roll cage from his accident in qualifying. When the race began from its rolling start, Vanthoor accelerated faster than his teammate Mortara and passed him into Reservoir Bend. Then, Mortara lost control of his car and spun violently into the corner's left-hand side wall. He damaged his car's spoiler and rear panel as the rest of the field scrambled for space to avoid piling into him. In the meantime, Vanthoor blocked Bamber and his teammate Estre from passing him with the Mercedes pair of Engel and Van der Zande behind them. On lap two, Müller lost control of his vehicle leaving Mandarin Oriental Bend and struck a wall heavily, necessitating the deployment of the safety car. During the safety car period, Mortara made two pit stops: the first was to correct aerodynamic deficiencies from his shattered rear wing and to repair the damage to his rear panel. The second was to have new tyres installed on his car. He emerged in 13th as the safety car negated much of the potential loss of time he would have had because of the long amount of time spent extricating Müller's car due to the narrow track and the lack of quick recovery.Racing resumed at the start of lap five and Vanthoor led. Action lasted no more than a lap because the safety car was called back into service after Ma and Chen made contact and crashed at Reservoir Bend turn. On lap nine, the safety car was withdrawn. Bamber heavily pressured Vanthoor and slipstreamed him into Mandarin Oriental Bend corner. Bamber then lost momentum through the following turn and provided Vanthoor with a small advantage that increased progressively. Vanthoor maintained his lead through the circuit's mountain portion. Mortara returned to the lead lap before a mistimed overtake on the final lap put O'Young into the Maternity Bend wall. Vanthoor crossed the start/finish line first after 12 laps to take pole position for the main race. Bamber was 0.786 seconds behind in second on the road and his teammate Estre was third. Engel finished fourth with his teammate Van der Zande fifth. Fong, Catsburg, Plentz, Yoshimoto and Bortolotti rounded out the top ten finishers. The final classified finishers were Cheng, Lee, Mortara, Couto, Lathouras, Capo, Kuo, Ma, Tulpe and O'Young. Seven of the twelve racing laps were held under green flag racing conditions as the two safety cars created an untidy race for all competitors.
Qualification Race classification
Main Race
The main race commenced in cloudy and dry weather at 12:55 local time on 20 November. The stewards led by Tim Mayer, chairman of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, imposed three-place grid penalties on Van der Zande and Mortara for their respective collisions with Müller and O'Young in the previous day's qualification race. Because of their accidents in the qualification race, Müller and O'Young were withdrawn because the structural damage to their cars was so great that they could not be repaired in Macau. Vanthoor maintained the lead driving into Mandarin Oriental Bend corner as Bamber held off a challenge from his teammate Estre for second. Bamber's block on Estre caused Engel to make contact with a barrier at Reservoir Bend turn in the process, and he was issued a five-second time penalty for the incident. Engel recovered from the contact to pass Fong into Lisboa corner to return to fourth place. At the conclusion of the first lap, Vanthoor led Bamber, Estre, Engel, Fong and Van der Zande who gained two positions from the start to run in the sixth position.As the leaders were midway through the second lap, the race initially went under the safety car due to a crash for Capo exiting Fisherman's Bend on his first lap, as his BMW Z4 GT3 clattered the tyre barrier at considerable speed necessitating repairs, resulting in a red flag to be waved at the end of lap three for ¾ of an hour, which designated under FIA Code an official race, resulting in a delay. Every driver drove behind the safety car and were required to enter the pit lane. During the repairs to the barrier and the recovery of Capo's car, a marshal was injured and an ambulance was dispatched to the scene. The official timing clock continued to run during the stoppage and 18 minutes were left once all cars returned to the track. The event restarted behind the safety car on the fifth lap. One lap later, the safety car was withdrawn with 15 minutes to go and racing resumed. Having been informed of his five-second time penalty for his collision with Engel on the initial start, Bamber used his vehicle's higher amount of torque to pass Vanthoor for the lead going into Mandarin Oriental Bend and build up a large enough gap to negate the penalty's effect.
Then, Vanthoor followed Bamber closely with the aim of slipstreaming him down to the braking zone for Lisboa corner. However, by doing so, Vanthoor was caught in an aerodynamic push and he miscalculated the entry to the next corner and slid wide by going over the inside kerbing. He was sent into an outside exit barrier at and removed his car's rear wing. That and the force of the impact caused him to strike the lower catchfence. Then the floor of Vanthoor's car caught air at its front, lifted airborne and overturned onto its roof. His car briefly had a bay fire as it slid on its roof for more than on the run to Lisboa corner. Vanthoor was slowed by the friction of the roof before stopping as other drivers scrambled to avoid hitting his car. He was unhurt and he exited the car without external assistance.
The race was stopped for a second time and was not restarted since only four minutes were left to run and clearing the debris left from the accident would have been time-consuming. Race officials decided to take the results from the running order at the end of the fourth lap. Although regulations stated that a driver who caused a red flag had to be penalised with sanctions including disqualification, the stewards elected to take no action. Thus, Vanthoor was declared the winner of the race, his first in Macau, and Audi won the FIA GT World Cup Manufacturers' Trophy. Estre was three-and-a half seconds behind in second and Engel completed the podium in third. Off the podium, Bamber's five-second time penalty demoted him from second to fourth. Fong, Van der Zande, Catsburg, Plentz, Bortolotti, Cheng, Yoshimoto, Couto, Mortara, Lathouras, Kuo, Ma, Shen, Tulpe and Lee were the final classified finishers. Less than two laps were run at racing speeds and Vanthoor led once for four laps, more than any other driver.