© Marcin Rybak#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye
Team WRT took a hard-fought win at Red Bull Ring during the second round of the European Le Mans Series championship.
In a race affected by a heavy rainstorm mid-way through proceedings, the championship leading team managed to keep its head to come out on top after four hours.
Logan Sargeant proved to be the big surprise on Saturday with the sportscar rookie taking pole-position on his debut for Racing Team Turkey as he filled in for the absent Harry Tincknell following a date clash with a Mid-Ohio IMSA sportscar race.
Salih Yoluc started the pole-sitting car, entered in the LMP2-AM class by virtue of the Turkish racer's bronze rating, and was quickly overtaken by similarly rated John Falb.
The American clung on to the lead for fifteen minutes while United Autosports duo Nico Jamin and Phil Hanson breathed down his neck but as the lead car hit traffic, both Jamin and Hanson found a way through.
© Autosport.com#34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 - Gibson: Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood, Logan Sargeant
#34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 - Gibson: Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood, Logan Sargeant
Photo by: ELMS
The early running was then made by the United cars before the first stops suddenly brought Nyck de Vries and G-Drive racing to the fore with the Mercedes Formula E star benefitting from a quick stop and proving extremely rapid.
De Vries would speed away from the nearest opposition, now coming from Robert Kubica in the Team WRT car that had steadily made up ground courtesy of a strong opening stint by Yifei Ye.
The rhythm race changed completely at the half way point with a heavy shower drenching the Styrian track and bringing out the safetycar.
The ensuing melee left only the WRT and G-drive cars on the lead lap and the final stint battle between G-Drive's Franco Colapinto and Louis Deletraz was dramatic.
The youngster pushed hard on a drying track to stay ahead of the more experienced Deletraz, taking a lot of risks in the process.
It was not to be for the Argentinean though as Deletraz did find a way past to win for the second time in a row with Kubica and Chinese teammate Yifei Ye.
LMP2-AM went to G-Drive Racing with former Formula 1 driver Roberto Mehri proving particularly quick in the changeable conditions and keeping well clear of a charging Logan Sargeant to win together with teammates John Falb and Rui Andrade.
LMP3 was initially dominated by United Autosports before the rain-induced safetycar ended the British team's challenge.
Victory then seemed to go to Graff Racing until a late penalty for a pitstop infringement handed the win to Cool Racing trio Matt Bell, Niklas Kruetten and Nicholas Maulini, the same team that won the opening round at Barcelona.
The GTE class was dominated by the #80 Iron Lynx Racing Ferrari until the chaotic second half of the race, leaving AF Corse to pick up the pieces.
Francois Perrodo, Alessio Rovera and Emannuel Collard taking victory after fighting back from a drive through penalty early on.
The next race of the European Le Mans Series will take place at Paul Ricard on 6 June.