Blancpain GT Series season starts with Sprint Cup weekend at Zolder

The Blancpain GT Series, which could be considered as the unofficial European GT Championship, is starting this weekend with two Sprint Cup races at Circuit Zolder.

Same as the year before, the season features five two-race events. Zolder will host the season-opener instead of Misano. The Italian round will be the third round in June, after the event at Brands Hatch in May. Hungaroring will host the fourth round in September and Nurburgring will be again a venue for the season-closing event on September 15-16.

Besides slight changes on the calendar, big changes occurred in sporting rules of the Sprint Cup. Previously, there were two races (Qualifying Race and Main Race) with separate point-systems. This year, the race weekend will consist of two races in which equal points would be scored.

Defending Sprint Cup champions Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard will compete in the #17 Audi R8 LMS

Twenty-two crews are on the entry list for Zolder’s season-opener. Defending Sprint Cup champions Robin Frijns and Stuart Leonard will defend a title in the #17 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS. The Belgian team will have four cars in the Sprint Cup. Four more Audis are coming to Zolder, two operated by Sainteloc Racing and two operated by Attempto Racing.

One more team will filed four cars – the French Akka ASP Team. The team first announced three Mercedes-AMG GT3s and then added one more entry under the banner of the Russian SMP Racing. GRT Grasser Racing Team is entering the competition with three Lamborghini Huracans.

Akka ASP Team is coming to Zolder with four Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars

Among GRT’s six drivers, there are last year’s Endurance Cup champions Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Andrea Caldarelli. Bortolotti and Engelhart will compete in the Sprint Cup together in the #63 Lamborghini while Caldarelli will share the #19 Lamborghini with Ezequiel Perez Companc. The French Akka ASP will run Mercedes-AMG GT3 machines.

In addition to Audis, Huracans and Mercs, the other GT3 machines on the grid are Ferrari 488 GT3, Lexus RC F GT3, BMW M6 GT3, Bentley Continental GT3 and Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX.

2018 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup entry list

Number	Team	Car	Drivers
1	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Alex Riberas, Christopher Mies
2	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Will Stevens, Dries Vanthoor
3	Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Gilles Magnus, Alessio Picariello
17	Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Robin Frijns, Stuart Leonard
11	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3	Michael Broniszewski, Giacomo Piccini
39	TP 12 - Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GT3	Piti Bhirombhakdi, Carlo Van Dam
14	Emil Frey Lexus Racing	Lexus RC F GT3	Christian Klien, Albert Costa
114	Emil Frey Lexus Racing	Lexus RC F GT3	Stephane Ortelli, Norbert Siedler
15	Boutsen Ginion Racing	Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX	Claude-Yves Gosselin, Pierre Feligioni
19	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Andrea Caldarelli, Ezequiel Perez Companc
63	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart
82	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Loris Hezemans, Franck Perera
25	Sainteloc Racing	Audi R8 LMS	Simon Gachet, Christopher Haase
26	Sainteloc Racing	Audi R8 LMS	Nyls Stievenart, Markus Winkelhock
31	Team Parker Racing	Bentley Continental GT3	Aron Taylor Smith, Josh Caygill
37	3Y Technology	BMW M6 GT3	Luks Moraes, Andrew Watson
55	Attempto Racing	Audi R8 LMS	Steijn Schothorst, Kelvin Van Der Linde
66	Attempto Racing	Audi R8 LMS	Pieter Schothorst, Pierre Kaffer
35	SMP Racing by Akka ASP	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Vladimir Atoev, Alexey Korneev
87	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Nicolas Jamin, Felix Serralles
88	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Raffaele Marciello, Michael Meadows
90	Akka ASP Team	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Jack Manchester, Nico Bastian