The penultimate race of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe season takes place this weekend at the Nürburgring circuit, where the Ferraris need to do well to keep their title chances alive for the last round of the series in seven days at the Hungaroring. Twenty-eight cars representing five manufacturers are registered for the race, which will be held on the track adjoining the famous Nordschleife, in the Eifel hills, and that has been on the championship calendar since 2012. Of these, four represent the Prancing Horse, two in the Pro-Am class and two in the Am Cup.
Pro-Am. The Ferrari 488 GT3 of Rinaldi Racing, crewed by Rinat Salikhov and David Perel, will go on the attack against the current championship leaders, Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Phil Keen, who they trail by 10.5 points. The AF Corse car driven by Andrea Bertolini and Louis Machiels will follow the same tactic. Although they are 27.5 points off the top, they are still in with a chance of the title.
Am Cup. In this class, the crew of the Ferrari of Kessel Racing, with the new Blancpain GT Sports Club Iron Cup champion, US driver Stephen Earle, and the Finnish Rory Penttinen will be the main challengers to Florian Scholze and Wolfgang Triller in the 488 GT3 of HB Racing, who enjoy a comfortable lead in the standings.
Programme. The Nürburgring weekend begins on Friday with two 80-minute free practice sessions at 9:45 am and 2:35 pm local time. The qualifying session for Race-1 kicks off at 9:30 am on Saturday morning, with the race set for 2:05 pm. On Sunday, the second and final 60-minute race of the German weekend starts at 2:30 pm.