12 May 2017
Silverstone, 12 May 2017 - This weekend Silverstone hosts the second event of the Blancpain Endurance Cup, which counts as the fourth round of the Blancpain GT Series. The GT Series includes the results of the Endurance Cup and the Sprint Cup, whose latest appointment was at Brands Hatch last weekend. Nine Ferraris and six official Prancing Horse drivers will be competing on the British track.
Overall Class. Three 488 GT3s will race in the main class. Spirit Of Race no. 50 will be crewed by Michele Rugolo, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Pasin Lathouras. The three finished second in the first race at Monza, as did Pier Guidi at the 6-Hour Spa-Francorchamps in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) last week. Expectations are also high for the 488 GT3 of Kaspersky Motorsport, which picked up a fourth place at Monza after a thrilling start in which Marco Cioci had to slalom between the debris of the Lamborghini and the other cars caught up in an accident on the main straight. The third Ferrari in the main class is no. 72 of SMP Racing with Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina and Victor Shaytar. The trio would have easily picked up second place at Monza had it not been for a drive-through penalty in the final stages. They ended up in fifth so Molina is looking to come back after an imperfect WEC race while Rigon is really flying after his triumph in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Pro-Am Cup. In the Pro-Am Cup class, all eyes are focussed on the car of Kessel Racing featuring Michael Broniszewski, Andrea Rizzoli and Matteo Cressoni. The three were second at Monza and have the potential to win at Silverstone. Niek Hommerson and Louis Machiels, third in Monza, will drive for Spirit Of Race. They will be without Andrea Bertolini, who is in Brianza for the European Le Mans Series race, but will be bolstered by the experience of Rory Butcher. However, the Ferrari drivers of Rinaldi Racing cannot be left out of the reckoning: Alexander Mattschull and Daniel Keilwitz did the double at Brands Hatch in the Sprint Cup and, along with Rinat Salikhov, would like to extend this winning streak to Silverstone. The last Ferrari in the Pro-Am Cup is that of AF Corse with Olivier Beretta, Lorenzo Bontempelli and Motoaki Ishikawa. At Monza the trio were caught up in an accident at the start that stopped them from even getting going.
Am Cup. Two Ferraris are registered for the Am Cup. There will be no Abigail Eaton, Alex Demidjian and Davide Rizzo, winners at Monza. However, the Prancing Horse can count on the excellence of Pierre Ehret and Rino Mastronardi at the wheel of the 488 GT3 of Rinaldi Racing and on the trio of Jacques Duyver, Marco Zanuttini and David Perel in the 488 GT3 of Kessel Racing. After the Bronze Test on Friday, the track action will go live on Saturday with the prequalifying session at 3:55 pm (4:55 pm CET). On Sunday qualifying is at 9:45 am GMT (10:45 am CET) while the race will start at 3:55 pm (4:55 pm CET) and will last for three hours.