The quickest car didn’t win in this caution free race, but the quickest driver did.
GT stats and closeness of all three classes are here.

The Battle for the win

Watch the battle here.

Initially the built up a nice 4-5s lead. From lap 30, due to traffic, both Porsche ate into the BMW’s lead until it was less than 1s. On lap 34 Campbell had a moment while lapping Formal’s #35 Lamborghini. This dropped to 6th and and 13 seconds behind the leader. 6th quickly became 5th when Vesti’s #31 Cadillac pitted. However Nasr stuck with Vanthoor until the stop.

#6 was catching the top 2 until on lap 40 it stopped. There was a spread of laps when GTP came in. Some taking advantage of the lighter car, but risking a yellow. #6 was the first of the podium to stop.

On lap 40 #7 got by #24, with a wonderful overtake into Turn 5.

However, stopping early and the undercut was the way to go. Next of these three in was #7 on lap 45 and this gave the lead back to #24 for one lap before it pitted.

After the stops Jaminet had a handy lead over Eng and these three had established themselves in the Top 3. During this middle stint Eng dropped to 20 seconds behind the leader and lost 2nd to Tandy. Tandy initially caught Jaminet a little, but the gap stabilized at 8s or so until the second stops.

After the final stops, the racing resumed with Jaminet, Tandy, and Vanthoor. The Porsche’s only had one driver change, but BMW alternated each stint. There was a decent gap between each three, although BMW gained a handful of seconds in the stop.

#7 and #24 were quicker at this stage, reeling in the leader. #7 caught the leader by lap 95 seconds. On lap 102 #6 got a cushion from the back marker, but #24 joined #7 about 4-5 seconds behind. Traffic helped it stay at this level. On lap 117 they were nose to tail.

On the run to the final corner Vanthoor tried to box in the Porsche in behind a backmarker after Tandy couldn’t get past quick enough. Tandy was having none of it and contact sent Vanthoor off and losing over 30 seconds rejoining. Such was the gap to the other BMW it didn’t lose 3rd.

Lap Chart

Who was quickest?

Sectors

Jaminet nailed the fastest lap and was more consistent. the top three drivers are the driver who had most laps in the race for the top three cars. This can be because the teams give them that seat time, but it also helps with this metric to have more laps. The drivers who only did one stint in those cars are listed 4th – 6th.