Blancpain Sprint – Double blow for Abril and Buhk at Zandvoort

To believe that the suspense will never end in Blancpain Sprint Series. After the misfortunes of Laurens Vanthoor having relaunched the title race after Misano in Italy, the Zandvoort event in the Netherlands also reserved its share of surprises from the qualifying race this Saturday.

If when the lights go out, Maximilian Buhk’s No. 3 Bentley Continental GT84 took the best flight, Robin Frijns (Audi R8 LMS ultra? Team WRT), leader of the championship, made a mistake in the first corner, affected according to the driver by the Ferrari 458 Italia n°333 by Norbert Siedler. The safety car was finally deployed, so that a tow truck could help the Dutchman get back on track? one lap behind the peloton.

In the lead, Maxi Buhk will gradually widen the gap before returning his Continental GT3 to Vincent Abril who finished the job to take the lead in the championship by one point before tomorrow's finale, where the Franco-German crew will start from pole, while Robin Frijns, partnered by Christopher Mies this weekend, will start 15th.

Frédéric Vervisch and Nicki Thiim (who was making his Sprint Series debut) finished second in Team WRT's No. 8 Audi R2 LMS ultra, just ahead of Winkelhock's sister car from Phoenix Racing? Mayr-Melnhof, who took advantage of the drive-through inflicted on the Ferrari 458 Italia of Jeroen Bleekemolen for an infraction in the pit lane.

Fourth under the checkered flag, the Dutchman, luxury freelancer to replace Marco Seefried, lined up in WEC, allows his teammate Norbert Siedler to still remain in the race for the title.

Jules Szymkowiak, who animated the debates in the peloton in the second part of the race, and his Dutch compatriot Max Van Splunteren won in the Silver Cup category, while the Pro-Am smiled on the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 from the GT Russian Team of Russian Alexey Karachev and Dutchman Indy Dontje.

The main race will start tomorrow at 13 p.m. French time.

Full video of the Qualifying Race