Blancpain GT Endurance Race Silverstone


 

Silverstone, 18 - 20 May, 2018

After enjoying beautiful weather for the Sprint Race Meeting at Brands Hatch two weeks before, the Blancpain Endurance Race Meeting at Silverstone enjoyed equally good weather over the weekend of 19 – 20 May. The 3 Hour Endurance Race was held on the Sunday afternoon, preceded by support races for the Formula Renault Eurocup and Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, each having a race on both the Saturday and Sunday.

The race attracted a strong 50 car entry over the four classes, Pro, Pro-Am, Silver and AM. The qualifying period is comprised of three 15mins sessions on the Sunday morning, one for each driver, with the final qualifying time being an average of the three driver’s best times. This saw the # 76 R-Motorsport entered Aston Martin V12 Vantage of Vaxiviere/Dennis/Thiim claim the overall pole position, with an average time of 1min 56.962secs. This was only 0.159sec quicker than the # 88 AKKA ASP entered Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Vautier/Christodoulou/Marciello, whilst the top 20 cars were only covered by 1.037secs, making for the promise of a close and exciting race. Pro-Am class qualifying honours went to the # 333 Rinaldi Racing entered Ferrari 488 GT3 of Mattschull/Salikhov/Keilwitz, with the Silver pole being taken by the # 54 Emil Frey Racing entered Emil Frey G3 Jaguar of Fontana/Zaugg/Grenier, and the AM class pole position went to the # 188 Garage 59 entered McLaren 650 S GT3 driven by West/Harris/Goodwin. After the session the data logger in the # 76 Aston Martin was found to contain no data, in breach of the regulations, so it was disqualified from the qualifying session. The team then lodged an appeal, thus it was allowed to start from pole position, but any race result would be provisional pending the outcome of the appeal. 

The close qualifying performances lived up to expectations in the race, with some close battles through the field for most of the race, which, given the number of cars on the track, was largely incident free. The pole sitting # 76 Aston Martin led from the start, but was hounded by the # 88 Mercedes throughout, even taking the lead on occasion, but as the clock ticked down, the Aston Martin managed to edge away to eventually take the chequered flag just under 11secs ahead of the Mercedes. The new for 2018 entrant in the series, the Emil Frey Racing Lexus RCF GT3s, whose # 14 car managed to hold on to 3rd place by a scant 0.5sec from the # 1 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS, to score the cars first podium finish. It also marked the first time this season that an Audi hadn’t finished on a Blancpain podium.

In the Silver Cup Class for the first two thirds of the race it looked as though the class pole sitting # 54 Emil Frey Jaguar G3 had the measure of the others in the class, but a lost wheel nut after the final pit stop sidelined them. That allowed the chasing # 6 Black Falcon entered Mercedes-AMG of Al Faisal/Haupt/Piana to take the class win from the # 24 Reiter Young Stars Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX driven by Siljehaug/Marioneck/Niederhauser . In the Pro-Am Cup class a first-lap incident badly delayed the pole-sitting #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488, which, although it continued, lost all chance of  achieving the class win, only recovering to 8th in class by the time the chequered flag fell. The class win went to the # 49 Ram Racing Mercedes-AMG of Burke/Yoluc/Hankey. In the Am Cup class the win went to the Garage 59 entered McLaren 650 S GT3 of Harris/West/Goodwin, after a an early race battle with the # Rinaldi Racing entered 88 Ferrari 488 GT3 of Yoon/Ehret/Penttinen, which dropped to 4th in class by the end of the race.

Race Podium Results
(Provisional pending appeal by race winner # 76)

Overall & Pro Class

1st - # 76, M. Vaxivier/ J. Dennis/N. Thiim, R-Motorsport, Aston Martin V12 Vantage

2nd - # 88, T. Vautier / A. Christodoulou / R. Marciello, Mercedes-AMG Team Akka ASP, Mercedes-AMG GT3

3rd - # 114, M. Palttala / S. Ortelli / N. Siedler, Emil Frey Lexus Racing, Lexus RC F GT3

Silver Cup Class

1st - # 6, A. Al Faisal / H. Haupt / G. Piana, BLACK FALCON, Mercedes-AMG GT3

2nd - # 24, M. Siljehaug / L. Marioneck / P. Niederhauser, Reiter Young Stars, Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX

3rd -  # 22, J. Witt / R. Sanchez / S. Moore, GT SPORT MOTUL Team RJN, Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3

Pro-Am Cup Class

1st - # 49, D. Burke / S. Yoluc / E. Hankey, Ram Racing. Mercedes-AMG GT3

2nd - # 42, C.Buncombe / N. Leventis / L. Williamson, Strakka Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3

3rd - # 51, D. Cameron / M. Griffin, AF Corse, Ferrari 488 GT3

AM Cup Class

1st - # 188, A. West / C. Harris / C. Goodwin, Garage 59, McLaren 650 S GT3

2nd - # 89, P. Giauque / E. Debard / F. Barthez , AKKA ASP Team, Mercedes-AMG GT3

3rd - # 991, J. Häring / E. Lewis Brauner / W. Triller, Herberth Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3 R

 

Ferrari Entry

Race #

Model

Chassis #

Team

Colour

Drivers

Position

 

 

 

 

 

 

O/A

Cl.

Class Pro

 

 

72

Ferrari 488 GT3

4446

SMP Racing

Red-White-Blue

M. Aleshin /
M. Molina /
D. Rigon

7th

7th

Class Pro-AM

 

 

51

Ferrari 488 GT3

4226

AF Corse

Green Met’-White

D. Cameron /
M. Griffin

26th

3rd

333

Ferrari 488 Ferrari GT3

4400

Rinaldi Racing

Green-White- Yellow

R. Salikhov /
A. Mattschull /
D. Schwager

41st

8th

53

Ferrari 488 GT3

4298

AF Corse

Black-RWG St’s

N. Hommerson / L. Machiels /
A. Bertolini

43rd 
NR

9th

Class AM

 

 

488

Ferrari 488 GT3

4432

Rinaldi Racing

Green-Black

R. Yoon /
P. Ehret /
R. Penttinen

34th

4th

 

Keith Bluemel          05/2018.