Blancpain Endurance Cup: Round 2 Silverstone – Preview and Practice

Round 2 is upon us, but who looks strong in the aftermath that was the mayhem that was Monza….

Round 1 was at it’s typical starting place of Monza for the Blancpain Endurance Cup, the championship is getting bigger and better every year with the competition getting fiercer with every round.
Nobody expected that start that happened with a multi car incident before the first turn taking out 9 cars before they even had a chance to fight and open their points tally for the season…
No one ever expected for Bentley to be one of the major headlines in the way they were but it all certainly made for some interesting news in the aftermath of round 1.

No.63 GRT Grasser Racing Team took the opening round of the series nearly 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd place No.50 Spirit of Race Ferrari F488 GT3. With the No.84 Mercedes AMG of HTP motorsport rounding out the podium making it 3 different marques on the podium.

Oman Racing with TF sport in their Aston Martin V12 Vantage took the honours in the Pro – AM category driven by Jonny Adam and Ahmad Al Harthy, ahead of the Kessel Racing Ferrari F488n GT3 driven by Michael Broniszewski, Andrea Rizzoli and Matteo Cressoni. The battle raged on for most of the race but the No.97 Aston Martin secured the lead in the closing minutes to take the chequered flag.

The headlines were filled with the very confusing situation with the No.7 Bentley. The Bentley made contact with No.19 GRT Lamborghini, this move caused the Lamborghini to lose control, the car darted left and spun back into the oncoming rest of the field. Nine cars were retired from the incident with many more damaged but not beyond repair, A red flag was shown and the race neutralised and it was 25 minutes before the race would go green again.

Once restarted the No.7 Bentley was given a 15 second stop-go penalty for causing the accident, the team appealed against. Guy smith continued to circulate but after appealing and large confusion, the car was shown a black flag after 30 minutes of racing.

At the time no one knew what the team were doing, majority thought the team were ignoring the flag and continuing racing, but in the confusion it turns out the team were trying to get the penalty over turned. The M-Sport Bentley felt the Lamborghini slightly moved over on the Bentley that was already getting along side thus creating the accident.

The teams now put Monza behind them and focus on the UK, last weekend the sprint cup rounds were at Brands Hatch, GRT Grasser racing team taking a double win there. This weekend the teams stay on British soil but a little further north at the Silverstone circuit for round 2 of the Endurance cup.

Return of the champions – Garage 59

The Reigning Endurance Cup champions Garage 59 are returning for Silverstone in the preparations for the Spa 24 hours. The Garage 59 McLaren 650s GT3 entry will be driven by BBC Top Gear’s Chris Harris, GT Open driver Alexander West and chief McLaren Automotive Test Driver Chris Goodwin.

Chris harris comes in off the back of a full 2016 season campaign with Team Parker Racing, not short on knowledge of the series or of the Silverstone and Spa Circuits that he’ll participating at.

Chris Goodwin comes in with a wealth of knowledge for the team, being a part of McLaren since the late 90’s wrestling the mighty McLaren F1 GTR up to the 12c GT3 in 2013 at the spa 24 hours along side Bruno Senna and Rob Barff.

Alexander West isn’t short on experience either, currently competing in the GT open with Côme Ledogar putting in some strong results already, and expressing he is excited to be racing at two iconic circuits with such a strong team this year as well as his full season entry in the GT Open.

Free Practice

All 55 cars rolled out for the Saturday morning free practice session, gloomy, grey, overcast conditions lingered over the Silverstone circuit with even spots of rain dropping from time to time.

Oman Racing with TF sport went quickest of all with a 2:00.510 set by Jonny Adam, only four tenths behind was the AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 piloted by Jules Gounon setting a 2:00.920. The Emily Frey Jaguar looks strong with the 3rd quickest time of 2:01.106 set by Albert Costa.

Only one full Pro car in the top 3 but the BMW of Rowe Racing wasn’t far behind also looking extremely competitive for the main race on sunday.

The afternoon practice was a complete weather change with the low hot sunshine, a polar opposite to what conditions the teams had in the morning. Temperatures into the 20’s after the morning’s chilly 12 degrees. The quickest in the hour sessions was the No.55 Kaspersky Ferrari 488 GT3 in the hands of James Calado, The BMW M6 GT3 of Rowe Racing driven by Phillip Eng was second quickest and the No.84 Mercedes from HTP Racing wasn’t far behind.

Mercedes seemed to have a strong car from all teams and BMW seem quick too in both sessions, Lamborghini aren’t up there with them in either session but the Italian Marque surely won’t be far behind when it comes to the race.