Estoril, 20 October 2016 - The Estoril round on Saturday will be the final one of the first season of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup and is expected to be full of action and drama for the fans. The Teams’ and Drivers’ titles will be both decided in Portugal. Eleven cars will line up on the Portuguese grid representing four manufacturers and 22 drivers from all the around the world.
Wide open. This last race of the season will be really competitive as the Teams’ and Drivers’ championships are still open with only a 12-point gap between the current leader (TF Sport) and the third-placed Mentos Racing team. The leader in the Teams’ championship, TF Sport with their Aston Martin will keep its regular line-up, Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey who should fight hard to keep the lead ahead of the Russian team SMP Racing, with the No. 72 Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar who are very close to win among drivers. Both teams will be challenged by Egidio Perfetti and Klaus Bachler at the wheel of the No. 88 Mentos Racing Porsche, standing third in both championships.
Ferrari battalion. No less than eight Ferraris will take part in Portugal, including the three entries from AF Corse, the No. 51 488 GT3 standing fifth in the Teams’ championship, driven by Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci, the No. 71 of Mads Rasmussen and Filipe Barreiros and the No. 14 of Pierre-Marie and Andrien De Leener. BMS Scuderia Italia will be fielding the No. 7 458 Italia for Luigi Lucchini and Matteo Cressoni while Scuderia Villorba Corse will enter a similar car for Cedric Mezard and Steeve Hiesse. There will also be a 458 Italia entered from Classic and Modern Racing and another 488 GT3 that will be raced by Ivor Dunbar and Johnny Mowlem under the FF Corse banner.
Schedule. Action starts on Friday with two free practice sessions. On Saturday, qualifying will take place at 11:05 followed by the 2-hour race at 16:45. Qualifying and race will be streamed live on the official website
gt3lemanscup.com.