Paul Ricard, 23-25 June, 2017

The Blancpain race series for GT3 cars was at the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France, for the 1000kms race on the Saturday evening running from 18.00 into darkness, finishing around midnight. The main race was supported by two races each for the GT Sports Club series for gentlemen drivers, two rounds of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, together with four demonstration periods for the Ultracar & GT1 Sports Club members, whose cars were on display in the paddock. Most remained on static display, but fortunately those that did take to the track were amongst the most exciting both aurally and visually, including both a Ferrari 550 Maranello GT1 and a 575 GTC, plus a Maserati MC12 in the renowned turquoise and black Vitaphone livery.

The popularity of the series amongst competitors can be gauged by the number of entries for the race, with a massive 58 cars lining up to take the start, featuring a wide range of different manufacturers. They spanned Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Porsche, 11 different manufacturers, so there was plenty of variety in shapes, sizes and sounds. The GT Sports Club races attracted a further 23 entries, whilst the Lamborghini Super Trofeo races had a 31 car field, so in all there were some 112 different GT cars competing over the weekend.

Paul Ricard 1000kms

All three days of the event were held under clear blue skies with high ambient temperatures as befits the South of France in June. The qualifying sessions for the main 1000kms race saw the # 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon entered Mercedes-AMG SLS GT3 Stolz / Christoduolou / Buurman take pole position. It was followed by a pair of Ferrari 488 GT3s, with the # 72 SMP Racing example driven by Shaytar / Molina / Rigon only 0.031sec in arrears, whist the # 50 Spirit of Race entered example was only 0.157sec off the pole position time. In fact the top twenty qualifiers were covered by less than a second, so the prospects of a long hard fought race between a large number of the entries was definitely on the cards, and that was before you took into account the battles for AM and Pro-AM class wins. In the AM class qualifying honours went to the # 488 Rinaldi Racing entered Ferrari 488 GT3 of Ehret / Penttinen / Mastronadi, 0.320sec quicker than the Kessel Racing # 888 entry driven by Duyver / Zanuttini / Perel. Ferrari 488 GT3s also topped the times in the Pro-AM qualifying stakes, with the # 11 Kessel Racing example of Broniszewski / Rizzolo / Cressoni, claiming the quickest time, only 0.009sec faster than the # 37 BBT entered example of Liu / Rizzo / Vilander, and only 0.015sec quicker than the 3rd fastest Ferrari, the # 333 Rinaldi Racing entry of Mattschull / Salikhov / Malucelli. In this class the top twelve cars were covered by less than a second.

The pole sitting # 4 Mercedes led from pole position when the lights went out chased hard by the # 72 Ferrari and the remainder of the field, as they settled into some sort of battle formation during the opening laps. There were two safety car periods during the opening hour when first the # 51 AF Corse Ferrari had an altercation with a barrier resulting in its retirement, and then the # 24 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini failed after 14 laps at the chicane on the Mistral Straight. These caution periods threw the pit stop strategies into some confusion, as to whether it was beneficial to make an early stop under the safety car or to hang on until the scheduled time. Some teams opted for the former and others for the latter, which meant that with out of sequence stops, five different manufacturers led during the course of the race in the order Mercedes-AMG, Jaguar, Ferrari, BMW and Bentley at the most important point in the race, at the chequered flag!

At half distance it was the # 99 ROWE Racing BMW M6 leading, but it then suffered some technical problems which dropped it down the order and into eventual retirement. This left a four way battle for overall honours between the # 8 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental, the # 72 SMP Racing Ferrari, the pole sitting # 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon and the # 50 Spirit of Race Ferrari. The latter failed with less than an hour of the race remaining, and a similar fate befell the # 4 Mercedes with only 30mins remaining on the clock. After the final round of pit stops the # 8 Bentley held a 32secs advantage over the # 72 SMP Racing Ferrari, and went on to take Bentley’s first endurance series win since their last one, also at Paul Ricard, in 2014. The # 72 SMP Ferrari was a strong 2nd overall less than 30secs in arrears at the chequered flag, whilst the final podium spot went to the # 1 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi R8 LMS after a strong final stint saw it gain a number of places. The Pro-AM class win went to the # 77 Barwell Motorsport entered Lamborghini Huracan after a race long duel with the # 97 Oman Racing Team’s Aston Martin V12 GT3. The # 36 Walkenhorst entered BMW M6 won the AM class on the road, but was given a 30secs time penalty for a driver stint violation, which meant that the # 888 Kessel racing Ferrari 488 GT3 inherited the class win, followed by the similar # 488 example of Rinaldi Racing.

Blancpain GT Sports Club
The series points leader Anthony Pons, driving his # 72 AKKA ASP entered Mercedes-AMG SLS GT3, enjoyed a perfect weekend, taking pole position in qualifying on the Saturday afternoon, then going on to win both the 25mins qualifying race on Sunday morning, then repeating the performance to win the 40mins main race in the afternoon. In both races he was hounded by his AKKA ASP team mates, Daniele Perfetti in the # 89 example and Mauro Ricci in the # 87 example, both drivers finishing in that order in both races. In the Iron Cup class, for drivers over 60 years of age, it was Klaus Dieter Frers driving the # 3 Artega Rennsport entered Ferrari 488 GT3 who took wins in both races from the Ferrari 458 GT3 of the American driver Stephen Earle in his # 111 Kessel Racing entry.

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Race Result
Overall & Pro Class
1st - # 8, Bentley Continental GT3, Bentley Team M-Sport, Soucek/Soulet/Abril
2nd - # 72, Ferrari 488 GT3, SMP Racing, Shaytar/Molina/Rigon
3rd - # 1, Audi R8 LMS, Audi Sport Team WRT, Garcia/Muller/Rast

PAM Class
1st - # 77, Lamborghini Huracan GT3, Barwell Motorsport, Amstutz/Kedric/Kujala
2nd - # 97, Aston Martin V12 GT3, Oman Racing Team with TF Sport, Al Harthy/Yoluc/Adam
3rd - # 87, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, Beaubelique/Bastian/Gounon

AM Class
1st - # 888, Ferrari 488 GT3, Kessel Racing, Duyver/Zanuttini/Perel
2nd - # 488, Ferrari 488 GT3, Rinaldi Racing, Ehret/Penttinen/Mastronadi
3rd - # 36, BMW M6 GT3, Walkenhorst Motorsport, Schiwietz/Van Campenhoud/Walkenhorst

Blancpain GT Sports Club Qualifying Race
1st - # 72, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, A. Pons
2nd - # 89, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, D. Perfetti
3rd - # 87, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, M. Ricci

Blancpain GT Sports Club Main Race
1st - # 72, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, A. Pons
2nd - # 89, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, D. Perfetti
3rd - # 87, Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, AKKA ASP, M. Ricci


Report & Images … Keith Bluemel


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