Bentley’s Vincent Abril and Maximilian Buhk held off impressive drives by Robin Frijns and Christopher Mies to become Blancpain Sprint Series drivers’ champions at Zandvoort.

Team WRT Audi driver Frijns, who raced this weekend with Mies after regular partner Laurens Vanthoor’s Misano injury, missed out on the championship by a final margin of just 0.375 seconds to Team HTP.

“I’m not yet realizing what we did today; it was amazing,” said Abril. “I’m blessed to be part of a team like this and have a teammate like Maximilian. We’re over the moon with this result, it’s crazy.”

The expected three-way title battle was reduced to two before the race even began, as Rinaldi Racing had to retire its Ferrari with an engine failure during warm-up. This left just the Audi and Bentley drivers, who were separated by one point in the standings after Saturday’s race.

Abril benefited from starting first, while Mies began the race down in 14th following Frijns’s first-lap incident in the qualifying event. Off the line, the two Team Brasil BMWs spun and collected the #6 Phoenix Racing Audi, bringing out a short full course yellow.

This crash allowed Mies to gain positions, and he navigated further through the field on a confusing restart. At this point, he was running fourth with Abril second.

Denying Abril an early lead was Marco Bonanomi in the #75 ISR entry, but after a few laps, the Italian sacrificed a few positions in order to aid the fellow Audi of Mies. A few minutes prior to the pit window opening, Mies overtook second-placed teammate Frederic Vervisch, and he trailed Abril by 4.5 seconds at the pit entry.

A rarity by way of a slow pit stop from the Team WRT crew kept Buhk, now in the Bentley, ahead of Frijns. But, cheered on by his home crowd, the championship leader soon closed the gap.

Proof of Frijns’ effort came with 12 minutes to go as he had to catch a near-spin when the Audi’s back end stepped out onto the grass. Although the Dutchman looked as if he could make a move during the final two laps, he was unable to, and so had to settle for second.

“I was pushing really hard and I couldn’t get more out of it,” said Frijns. “I was drifting out of the corner to catch the Bentley but I couldn’t do anything.”

Frijns still wins the overall Blancpain GT Series championship, which combines both the Sprint and Endurance series.

In third position was the #2 Audi of Nicki Thiim and Vervisch, while Bonanomi and Filip Salaquarda held on for fourth position ahead of Stephane Ortelli and Stephane Richelmi.