The incredible struggle for 60 minutes of arrival, some very spectacular crashes, amazing «guessing» the tactics of the pits the winner, sparks from the duct of one of the McLaren and «boring» finish the two particularly zealous participants in the race — it is only a short summary what happened in the first night, the qualifying race on April 9.
Of all modern competition only Blancpain GT Series brings me real pleasure with the obligatory catharsis at the finish — and this is not surprising: for a long time in any «mass» sprint race I have not met for four dozen cars at the start and this persistent battle for position during the competition!
The first race weekend of the season Blancpain GT Series was held in the Italian Misano and is traditionally opened sprintovymi two races, each the length of 1 hour: Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's primary.
At this year's grid is created some excitement: even in the sprint series was announced 38 vehicles — compared with 20 a little in the past year. I'm not talking about six dozen crews who are going to open in two weeks at Monza Endurance series. Moreover, even in the qualification race competition between the crews and the teams it was so high that, in principle, on the podium could rise by at least 15 crews at various developments, and the most interesting thing was to be raffled are already on the road.
Qualifying took place on Saturday, and the first half of the day in Misano was only rain. Dropped a lot of rain, the asphalt was very slippery, and many teams have feared that if the rain does not stop, then the race will be very problematic. For example, the owner of Rinaldi Racing team Vadim Kogay believed that green Ferrari in the rain race 458 at number 333 may not be as competitive as on dry land, despite the fact that in the sprints while driving has traditionally been two such experienced pilot Marco Zifrid and Norbert Sidler.
However, in qualifying Rinaldi Racing showed a good time and started Saturday's race from third position on the grid. The first was the crew №1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT on the Audi R8 LMS. Their own car number 4 took fourth place at the start. Second place was a surprise, because got a new team, «Garage 59» at McLaren 650 S GT3 (# 58). Surprisingly there was another — none Bentley, and none BMW6 could not pass in the third segment of training and started in the middle of the peloton. Well — it was more interesting to watch the development of events!
Traditionally, the first behind the wheel of the Ferrari # 333 villages Norbert Sidler. At the time of the start of rain had stopped, and many teams had a problem with the choice of rubber — slick or poluslik. In fact, at first asphalt was still wet, but it dried the well and in the first laps of the race.
The most basic struggle was developed for the first position. First, «Wunder» McLaren remained standing on the grid, while the rest went on the installation lap — and the judge hand pushed him back to the pitlane. Then, a green Ferrari Russian team slightly hesitated at the start, behind Audi's number 4. And it is a huge breakthrough with the launch undertaken Maximilian Beech on Mercedes AMG GT3, once with the seventh position once the third and the fourth pushing Sidler. But the next 30 minutes gave absolutely fantastic fight for the 2-3-4 places where for half an hour was not practical for a single moment without changing positions. This is what is called the real motor racing, and not the nudyatiny, which show us the last few years every two weeks through the central channel!
By the time the pit stop window opened for a mandatory change of pilots, places were distributed like this: Audi # 1, # 84 the Mercedes, Audi # 4, # 333 Ferrari, and Ferrari won on the sectors of time, but could not overtake.
Marco Zifrid as foreseen this situation when after qualifying talked about how important it will be place on the grid in the race — because of the very high level of competition and approximately equal strength in the top ten crews.
In principle, I am very optimistic about pitstop — given the fact that the Rinaldi Racing have become quite dexterous to change pilots and wheel replacement. And yet progressed very well. №333 retained the fourth position among those who have already visited the pitstop — although they would have to play a few seconds, if there were no problems with the engine running. But the two cars of the peloton until the last pits, as had the gift of foresight. It had been Bentley # 8 and M-Sport BMW M6 # 99 ROWE Racing. This team and replaceable pilots in the pits already visibly nervous, because late pitstop on threatened severe penalties in the race.
Surprisingly, the luck seems favorably disposed to the two crews. At that moment, when they are on pitstope, on the road emit FCY — yellow flags caused by inflammation in the engine compartment of one of the McLaren, with the result that the entire peloton slowed down, and the Bentley, and behind him and BMW have time to go ahead and save the two leading position! So the leaders of the first half of the race are relegated to the third place and the next!
And then begins extravaganza! Now the struggle takes place between Bentley and BMW. BMW across all sectors is clearly faster, but the pilot Bentley nerves not in principle, and all the pressure from the №99 has no effect on him. But the most incredible thing that can be seen only in the Blancpain — a fight for position on the track between the leader and circular, as Bentley Boys abuts the front going to the lag in the range of Lamborghini # 101 and can not get it — she just does not pass, but also wins back position back! And no wonder — because for Huracan driving at the time was none other than Daniel Zamperi, co-driver of our Roman Mavlanov and champion the past years in a series GT Open and Tropheo Lamborghini.
Meanwhile, on the road a few crashes occur — and this is understandable: 38 Car is physically difficult to fit three and a half kilometers of Misano.
First, at the exit of the first corner Nissan GT-R # 23 pushes the Audi # 2, so much so «successful» that she flies off the track and seriously broken on the bump stops. Then, after the restart, another accident — and again Audi, is now №4, is involved in a collision with a lamborghini. Following this error McLaren # 74 have resulted in a crash, but not fatal. All this is accompanied by a confrontation between Bentley and BMW, and a little further — Ferrari # 333 and Mercedes # 84 and do not give up until the last! And like the finish, and all seats are allocated, but phantasmagoria continues!
In the struggle for a place in the last turn under the checkered flag comes another encounter — this time the Nissan GT-R # 23 and Audi # 5! And Audi satisfied the real attraction «carousel», turning on the wet grass around its axis 6 complete (!) Times. Truly unreal race!
As my good friend motorsport journalist and author of one of the columns on our website Roman Smirnov: «From these races Whiting (...) would be from fear and stopped the race for 2 hours, to all to understand...». And it is true. But motorsport has to be that way, as we saw in Misano — so for a long time like grunting with pleasure.
Sunday's race was a little quieter. Bentley and BMW have started from the front row, but yesterday the winners of M-Sport team losing position and are only a third, and then did — going behind the Audi # 4 in the general confusion on the first lap pushes Bentley, and they fly to the margins, and return to peloton can only be at the end. Although Audi get drive-through, the team M-Sport at the start of this failure was very expensive: in the course of arrival they were able to play quite a few positions, but still finished only 11-mi. Not the first half of the race too well formed and for a bright green Ferrari 458 Rinaldi Racing. The team did not guess the pressure in the rear tires, and for the first 25 minutes before the opening pitlane Zifrid Marco was forced to defend itself, but still lost one position after another, and as a result turned out to be the 11th. But they had the fastest pitstop, played on that 3 position, put the correct tire pressure, and Norbert Sidler was able to show a decent time. As a result — finish in 6th place, as in the first race.
The leading place retain BMW M6 # 99 Rowe Racing, Audi R8 LMS # 1 Belgian Audi Club and Mercedes # 84 AKKA racing. However, BMW is clearly losing speed cars from Ingolstadt, which for the second year set the speed of the peloton. Therefore, a positional alignment is preserved for long, and after 15 minutes after the start of Audi, and behind them, and the Mercedes, taking advantage of a mistake of the pilot for BMW, make a fundamental overtaking. After that # 99 and not be able to get ahead, moreover, to lose another one position, losing the second Mercedes from the same team at number 88. And if not for the technical problems of the car, not to see the crew Rowe Racing podium as their ears. However, for the two races, they brought the second and third place, which is very good for a new car this season.
Despite the fact that significant incident on the track at this time was much smaller, the judges handed out fines left and right. In total, during the race the pilots received 6 passages through the pitlane, and two were in the Audi # 4 and # 6. Whether judges in the light of the day was the best seen happening on the track, or after the Saturday race they were advised to tighten execution. However, this does not cancel an incredibly entertaining fight for 1-2-3 place over two rounds, tight times on the track and a busy schedule of points the teams after the first phase of the Sprint series.
Next Event Blancpain GT Series — 3-hour Endurance Race — will be held on 23–24 April in Monza. Here, driving the Ferrari # 333 Rinaldi Racing Team will perform including the Russian pilot Rinat Salikhov. And, by the way, they will go on a new Ferrari 488!
Photo: open sources.
