

Bronze test - Friday, 28 September - 15:55
Friday, September 28th, 15:55, started the bronze tests for this final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup 2018.
20 cars took the track under a temperature of 33°.
With a time of 1:46.739 the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 #51 took the best time of the session before another representative of the Maranelo firm the #11 of Kessel Racing.
Rinaldi Racing completed the hat-trick of the Ferrari 488 GT3 #333, in fourth place was the first non-Ferrari, but still Italian, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #27 Daiko Lazarus Racing.




Free practice - Saturday, 29 September - 09:00
Dries Vanthoor (Belgian Audi Club Team WRT #1 - Audi R8 LMS) set the pace in the Free Practice session of the weekend at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday morning.
The Belgian posted a best time of 1:44.203 early on in his Audi that he shares with Christopher Mies and Alex Riberas.
Black Falcon’s #4 Mercedes of Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz was the second quickest car with a time of 1:44.440.
Two of Strakka Racing’s Mercedes #44 of Felipe Fraga,Christian Vietoris, Oliver Rowland and #42 of Chris Buncombe,Nick Leventis, Lewis Williamson, best-placed Pro-Am contender, were third and fourth, ahead of the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi with at the wheel Simon Gachet, Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase in fifth.
Barwell Motorsport’s #78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, drove by Michele Beretta, Sandy Mitchell and Martin Kodric led the Silver Cup from seventh overall.






The session was red-flagged twice for separate incidents, losing around 30 minutes of running in the 90-minute session.
Pre Qualifying - Saturday, 29 September - 16:45
Maxi Buhk, Alvaro Parente and Maxi Goetz the #43 Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing crew has topped pre-qualifying ahead of the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
In the Pro-Am class, the #49 Ram Racing Mercedes-AMG led the way with Remon Vos and Tom Onslow-Cole.
The Silver Cup category was topped by another Mercedes-AMG GT3, the #90 of AKKA ASP Team of Jules Szymkowiak, Jack Manchester and Nico Bastian.
The Am Cup was the only exception to Mercedes-AMG’s dominance, as the #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW of Henry Walkenhorst, Ralf Oeverhaus and Immanuel Vinke earned class honours for pre-qualifying.




Qualifying - Sunday, 30 September - 09:00
The Black Falcon’s #4 Mercedes crew of Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz began the weekend one point shy of leader Raffaele Marciello, but levelled the scores by taking the pole position bonus at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Chris Mies, Alex Riberas and Dries Vanthoor (Audi Club Team WRT #1 - Audi R8 LMS) took the the second place on the grid with 0.172 gap.
In Pro Am, the pole went to Strakka Racing's Mercedes AMG GT3 # 42 of Nick Leventis, Chris Buncombe and Lewis Williamson.
P1 in Am Cup went to the #89 AKKA Mercedes thanks to Fabien Barthez and Eric Debard.




The Q1 was interrupted by long minutes following the big exit at turn 9 of the Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS #66, driven by Pieter Schothorst.
In Q2, a Full Course Yellow was set up as Reiter Young Stars' Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX #24 finished its race in the gravel of the first corner.
A red flag was then presented to competitors as AUDI R8 LMS #888 from Car Collection Motorsport (Antone Forne Tomas) also visited the gravel.




The race - Sunday, 30 September - 15:05 - 18:05


How to report when we do not know the winner of the race.
On the track the Mercedes-AMG GT3 #4 arrived in front of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Mercedes-AMG Team Akka ASP #88 of Tristan Vautier, Daniel Juncadella and Raffaele Marciello after a battle of all times, some safety car maintained the suspense until the checkered flag.
During the technical control after the race, the technical marshals have discovered an irregularity on the Mercedes-AMG GT3 #4.
Following Stewards decision, the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon car has been disqualified from round 10's Blancpain GT Series race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The team has taken the decision to appeal the disqualification.
The results of the Barcelona race, and the championship standings, will remain provisional until the appeal has been heard.


What can we say about this race, it was exciting from the edge of the track.
The Emil Frey G3 Jaguar #54 of Alex Fontana, Adrian Zaugg and Mikael Grenier won the silver cup for its ultimate race, and can be finished on the third step of the podium depending of the resultut of the #4 appeal.
In Pro Am, the victory fell into the hands of Daiko Lazarus Racing with his Lamborghini Huracan GT3 #27 drove by Giuseppe Cipriani, Miguel Ramos and Fabrizio Crestani while the title goes to the Mercedes AMG GT3 #42 Strakka Racing of Chris Buncombe, Nick Leventis and Lewis Williamson.
The Am Cup class was won by the #77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan of Adrian Amstutz, Leo Machitski and Richard Abra, which clinched the overall and Endurance class title for the British squad and secured the same set of drivers’ honours for Amstutz and Machitski.
I will come back to update as soon as the final ranking will be known
Presentation of participants team by team
Attempto Racing


Audi R8 LMS - Anders Fjordbach/Kim Luis Schramm/Clemens Schmid


Audi R8 LMS - Pieter Schothorst/Steijn Schothorst/Kelvin van der Linde
Barwell Motorsport


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Richard Abra/Adrian Amstutz/Leo Matchiski


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Michele Beretta/Sandy Mitchell/Martin Kodric
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT


Audi R8 LMS - Dries Vanthoor/Christopher Mies/Alex Riberas


Audi R8 LMS - Sheldon van der Linde/Stuart Leonard/Robin Frijns
Bentley M-Sport


Bentley Continental GT3 - Jordan Pepper/Steven Kane/Jules Gounon


Bentley Continental GT3 - Vincent Abril/Andy Soucek/Maxime Soulet
Black Falcon


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Maro Engel/Yelmer Buurman/Luca Stolz


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Kriton Lendoudis/Saud Al Faisal/Rui Aguas


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Hubert Haupt/Gabriele Piana/Abdulaziz Al Faisal
Car Collection Motorsport


Audi R8 LMS - Dimitri Parhofer/Antonio Forne Tomas/Frank Stippler
Daiko Lazarus Racing


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Giuseppe Cipriani/Miguel Ramos/Fabrizio Crestani


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Arno Santamato/Toby Sowery
Emil Frey Racing


Lexus RC F GT3 - Christian Klien/Marco Seefried/Albert Costa


Emil Frey G3 Jaguar - Alex Fontana/Adrian Zaugg/Mikael Grenier


Lexus RC F GT3 - Markus Palttala/Stéphane Ortelli/Norbert Siedler
Garage 59


McLaren 650 S GT3 - Côme Ledogar/Ben Barnicoat/Andrew Watson


McLaren 650 S GT3 - Alexander West/Chris Harris/Chris Goodwin
GRT Grasser Racing Team


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Raffaelle Gianmaria/Ezequiel Perez Companc/Marco Mapelli


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Mirko Bortolotti/Andrea Caldarelli/Christian Engelhart


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Franck Perera/Phil Keen/Rolf Ineichen
Herberth Motorsport


Porsche 911 GT3-R - Jürgen Häring/Edward Lewis Brauner/Wolfgang Triller
Kessel Racing


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Michael Broniszewski/Alessandro Pier Guidi
Manthey Racing


Porsche 911 GT3-R - Romain Dumas/Dirk Werner/Frederic Makowiecki
Nissan Team RJN


Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 - Colin Noble/Ricardo Sanchez/Struan Moore


Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 - Jann Mardenborough/Matt Parry/Alex Buncombe
Oman Racing with TF Sport


Aston Martin V12 Vantage - Euan Mckay/Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood
Ombra Racing


Lamborghini Huracan GT3 - Andrea Rizzoli/Romain Monti/Alex Frassineti
RAM Racing


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Remon Vos/Tom Onslow-Cole
Reiter Young Stars


Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX - Mads Siljehaug/Lenny Marioneck/Patric Niederhauser
Rinaldi Racing


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Alexander Mattschull/Rinat Salikhov/Daniel Keilwitz


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Rick Yoon/Pierre Ehret/Rory Penttinen
R-Motorsport


Aston Martin V12 Vantage - Dominik Baumann/Marvin Kirchhofer/Maxime Martin


Aston Martin V12 Vantage - Matthieu Vaxivière/Jake Dennis/Nicki Thiim
ROWE Racing


BMW M6 GT3 - Nicky Catsburg/Jens Klingmann/Tom Blomqvist


BMW M6 GT3 - Alexander Sims/Jesse Krohn/Philipp Eng
Saintéloc Racing


Audi R8 LMS - Simon Gachet/Ricardo Feller/Christopher Haase


Audi R8 LMS - Nyls Stievenart/Marc Rostan/Markus Winkelhock
SMP Racing


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Davide Rigon/Mikhail Aleshin/Miguel Molina
SMP Racing by AKKA-ASP


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Michael Meadows/Alexey Korneev/Denis Bulatov
Spirit of Race - AF Corse


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Lorenzo Bontempelli/Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin


Ferrari 488 GT3 - Niek Hommerson/Louis Machiels/Andrea Bertolini
Strakka Racing


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Chris Buncombe/Nick Leventis/Lewis Williamson


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Maxi Buhk/Alvaro Parente/Maxi Goetz
Team AKKA-ASP


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Nicolas Jamin/Mauro Ricci/Jean-Luc Beaubelique


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Tristan Vautier/Daniel Juncadella/Raffaele Marciello


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Fabien Barthez/Eric Debard


Mercedes-AMG GT3 - Jules Szymkowiak/Jack Manchester/Nico Bastian
Team Parker Racing


Bentley Continental GT3 - Derek Pierce/Rob Smith/Seb Morris
Walkenhorst Motorsport


BMW M6 GT3 - Henry Walkenhorst/Ralf Oeverhaus/Immanuel Vinke
The Blancpain GT Series 2018 season is over, see you again for the 2019 season.
2019 Blancpain GT Series calendar
Winter tests :
Paul Ricard (13-14 March)
Endurance Cup :
Monza (13-14 April)
Silverstone (11-12 May)
Paul Ricard (1er-2 June)
24 Heures de Spa (27-28 Jully)
Nürburgring (31 août-1er September)
Sprint Cup :
Brands Hatch (4-5 May)
Red Bull Ring (25-26 May)
Misano (29-30 June)
Budapest (7-8 September)
Barcelone (28-29 September)
(Based on Blancpain GT Series Press release)