BLACK FALCON enters Blancpain GT Series season finale with championship hopes

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Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Round 5: Circuit De Catalunya race preview

BLACK FALCON head to Spain for the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup finale with several championship titles in their sights. Although the team have concentrated on the long-distance endurance element of the series, their drivers’ superlative performances have put them in the running for the overall Silver Cup trophy, which combines results from both the Endurance and Sprint Cup sub-series, while also maintaining a clear lead in the Endurance Silver Cup standings. The team’s all-professional line-up is also within touching distance of a strong result in both the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Teams and Pro Drivers championships.

A huge grid of 52 powerful GT3 cars will be racing at the Circuit De Catalunya and BLACK FALCON’s full-season entry of three Mercedes-AMG GT3 will compete with unchanged driver line-ups. The factory-backed, Pro-class #4 Mercedes-AMG Team BLACK FALCON stars the super-fast, multiple race-winning trio of Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands), Maro Engel (Germany) and Luca Stolz (Germany). They lie just a single point behind the leading driver in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Pro Driver standings; finishing ahead of that driver is their prime target.

The driver line-up for the #5 AMG in the Pro-Am class comprises regular drivers Rui Aguas (Portugal), Saud Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia) and Kriton Lendoudis (Greece). The three drivers have had enjoyed excellent results across their debut season together, and will be looking to finish the year on a high.

In Silver Cup, the drivers of the #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3 – Abdulaziz Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia), Hubert Haupt (Germany) and Gabriele Piana (Italy) – will be aiming for the best result possible to secure both the Endurance Silver Cup title and also to support Hubert in his pursuit of overall Silver Cup honours. A fine result in the Sprint Cup showdown at the team’s home track of the Nürburgring means that Hubert holds a lead of 15 points over his nearest rival. However, victory is never assured, and all three drivers will be pushing to the limit to secure the winning trophies. 

Free Practice and Qualifying take place on Saturday, September 29th, and the Qualifying session that will set the grid for the final takes place at 09:00 CET on Sunday. The lights will turn green for a frantic four hours of racing at 15:00 CET, with everything to play for. 

Keep up with exciting denouement to BLACK FALCON’s 2018 Blancpain campaign by tuning into the full live timing and streaming video service for qualifying and the race, which will be available at www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live. You can also support BLACK FALCON across all social media platforms: follow them via twitter.com/TeamBlackFalcon, facebook.com/teamblackfalcon/ and instagram.com/teamblackfalcon to get live action updates directly from the tracks, as well as fantastic images of the team in action.