At the final round of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, held at the Nürburgring on September 15th to 17th, no fewer than seven teams and thirteen drivers are still fighting for this year’s Sprint Cup. The top-5 among them are only separated by six points, meaning that it is impossible to predict the outcome of this year’s title fight.
Never before have so many drivers had a shot at the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at the eve of the final event. The previous round at the Hungaroring thoroughly changed the driver rankings. With their perfect score, Dries Vanthoor and Marcel Fässler (Belgian Audi Club Team WRT) are now among the seven driver pairings that still have a chance at this year’s title. However, the competition between them and the other six duos – representing Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Mercedes-AMG– will be fierce.
#84 Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport-pairing Maxi Buhk and Franck Perera are still leading the Sprint Cup standings as they have been doing since they dominated the opening sprint round in Misano, but their advantage has been reduced to a mere three points.
Both, the Silver Cup and Am Cup category of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, were already decided at the penultimate round in Budapest last week. Jules Szymkowiak, Fabian Schiller and HTP Motorsport are this year’s Silver Cup winners. In the Am Cup category Stephen Earle, David Perel and Kessel Racing took the honours. But the Pro-Am Cup category of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup is still up for grabs. Daniel Keilwitz and Alexander Mattschull (#333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari) enjoy a healthy 13-point lead.
But the 2017 Sprint Cup title fight is not the only one that can be decided in the Eifel. Should Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart (#63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini) manage to extend their 18-point lead in the overall Blancpain GT Series classification (combining endurance and sprint series) with seven points, the Italian-German duo could be crowned 2017 champions.
So the two races on the 5,148 Nürburgring track will certainly be worth watching. The qualifying race starts at 14.00 on Saturday September 16th, with the all-deciding main race getting underway at 15.30 on Sunday afternoon.
The Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup is not the only exciting race series present in the Eifel. With the close racing of the Formula Renault Northern European Cup, the sheer power of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and the outstanding GT competition from the GT4 European Series Northern Cup, there will be plenty of track action, with eight race starts in total.
Marion Englert,