Laurens Vanthoor

Laurens Vanthoor
Vanthoor in 2009.
Nationality	Belgian
Born	(1991-05-08) 8 May 1991 Hasselt, Belgium
FIA GT1 World Championship career
Debut season	2012
Current team	WRT
Car no.	32
Starts	18
Wins	3
Poles	1
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	4th in 2012
Previous series
2009 2008–09 2010-11	Belgian Touring Car Series German Formula Three Formula 3 Euro Series
Championship titles
2009	German Formula Three

Laurens Vanthoor (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlʌu̯rəns vɑnˈtoːr] (pronounced together as [ˈlʌu̯rənsfɑnˈtoːr]); born 8 May 1991) is a Belgian professional racing driver. He currently resides in Zolder.

Career

Karting

Born in Hasselt, Vanthoor began his kart racing career at an early age. In 2005 he became French and Belgian Champion in the ICA-J class, and he also finished fourth in the European Championship.

In 2007 Vanthoor become an official factory driver for the CRG racing team in the KF2 category. He ended up being out of action for five months out due to an accident, resulting in six fractures.^[1] His best result in the season was a runner-up position in the North European Championship.

Formula Three

Vanthoor began his formula racing career in the 2008 German Formula Three season, jumping from karting directly into Formula Three. He finished fourth overall in the championship, with two wins and three poles. Following his successes, the Belgian Automobile Club (RACB) made him a member of their "National Team" initiative and Volkswagen Motorsport made him an official driver.^[2][3] Vanthoor also became the youngest driver ever in the history of the Macau Grand Prix, and he finished in sixth position.^[4]

With Frédéric Vervisch and Sebastian Saavedra both moving Stateside and Johnny Cecotto Jr. moving up to the F3 Euroseries and GP2, Vanthoor became the main title contender for the 2009 season. Vanthoor followed Vervisch's lead of 2008, by dominating the field, wrapping up the title at the Nürburgring.^[5]

He moved into the Formula Three Euroseries for the 2010 season, with Signature^[6] and stayed with the team for the 2011 season. He scored several podium finishes, but never won a race.

FIA GT1

In 2012 he switched to the FIA GT1 World Championship with WRT. Together with Stéphane Ortelli, he won both the qualifying and championship races at the first round at Nogaro.

In 2014 he competed in the Blancpain Sprint Series and Blancpain Endurance Series, winning the latter.

2015

In 2015, he started his season in the Bathurst 12 Hour with Phoenix Racing. He took the pole with a new lap record and ended 2nd. He also drove in Brazil for the 1st round of the Stock Car Brasil together with Valdeno Brito for Shell Racing at Goiania. Together with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT he won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in the new Audi R8 LMS 2015 specification. On 3 October, during the event at Misano for the Blancpain Sprint Series, he was involved in a heavy crash which led to a heavy injury. Therefore, he missed the last race of the season as well as the race at Macau, where he was replaced by René Rast. He made his comeback at the Sepang 12 Hours, which he won with Stéphane Ortelli and Stuart Leonard.

2016

In 2016, he started his season with a win in the Dubai 24 Hour with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT. 21th November 2016, Vanthoor flies and wins the Macau GP.

Racing record

Career summary

^* Season still in progress.
^† As Vanthoor was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key)

FIA GT competition results

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Complete FIA GT Series results

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2015	OAK Racing	Chris Cumming Kévin Estre	Ligier JS P2-Honda	LMP2	329	DNF	DNF
2016	Michael Shank Racing	Oswaldo Negri John Pew	Ligier JS P2-Honda	LMP2	345	14th	9th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Complete Stock Car Brasil results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† As Vanthoor was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

References

External links

• Official website
• Laurens Vanthoor on Twitter
  
• Laurens Vanthoor career summary at DriverDB.com