25 August 2016
Le Castellet, 25 August 2016 - The fourth round of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans cup will be held in France at the Circuit Paul Ricard on 27 August. Thirteen cars will take the start of the French round representing six countries and 26 drivers. Diversity and quality will be once again the key elements of the two hour race that promises to be full of action and drama.
A Ferrari battalion. No less than eight Ferrari will be on the starting grid at Circuit Paul Ricard. The race winning no. 72 Ferrari 488 of SMP Racing will have its usual all Russian driver line-up of Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar. Another 488 will be the no. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488, that currently stands fourth in the championship classification, driven by Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci. No doubt that they will try to score a podium in order to catch up with the No. 88 Porsche 911 GT3R of Mentos Racing in third position. There will be another 488 competing: it’s the No. 25 FF Corse car of Ivor Dunbar and Johnny Mowlem.
The 458 Italias. All the other Ferrari will be 458 Italias. On the No. 14 AF Corse machine there will be Pierre Marie and Adrien De Leener; on the No. 71 car there will be Mads Rasmussen and Filipe Barreiros while on the No. 7 entered by BMS Scuderia Italia Luigi Lucchini and Matteo Cressoni will be competing. Finally the No. 8 car of Scuderia Villorba corse will see Cedric Mezard and Steeve Hiesse driving while the No. 26 car of Classing and Modern Racing team will be entrusted to Nicolas Tardif and Soheil Ayari.
Title fight. The leader of the championship with 52 points, the No 34 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 which finished third in Austria, will keep its line-up of Salih Yoluc from Turkey and Euan Hankey from the UK. Basov and Shaytar are just one point behind them in the standings. Action will begin on Friday with two free practice sessions, followed by the qualification on Saturday at 11:15. The green flag will be waved later the same day at 17 for the 2 hour race. There will be plenty of entertainment across all three days with free entry for all spectators, both young and old.