Engel-Stolz-Buurman and Black Falcon win the Endurance Cup

The victory of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon suffers no dispute this Sunday in Barcelona for the finale of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup

Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz, starting from pole, dominated the entire three hours of racing, and thus won the Endurance Cup Drivers title and Black Falcon the 2018 Teams Endurance Cup crown.

The scenario of the race was finally clear for the No. 4, with an exceptional first stint from Maro Engel who crushed the competition, helped however by theAston Martin Vantage n°76 – R-Motorsport of Nicki Thiim, who retained the entire peloton, starting with Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°88 – Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA-ASP).

Co-leader of the championship with the Black Falcon trio, the Italian had moved up to third position after notably passing the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT1 – Team WRT of Christopher Mies, but came up against Nicki Thiim.

Before handing over his wheel to Luca Stolz, Maro Engel had accumulated a lead of more than 20″, offering his teammates a boulevard. But the end of the second hour of racing, much more choppy, will provide the long-awaited suspense for obtaining the title.

Buurman resists Vautier

The stop on track of the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT6 – Black Falcon causes a Full Course Yellow followed by the safety car, reducing the gap built by the #4 to 6″.

After the last driver changes, the exit from the track of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 – Saintéloc Racing less than an hour from the finish saw a new Full Course Yellow deployed, before the exits of the Ferrari 488 n°488 with 33′ to go, then the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 n°22 with a quarter of an hour to go, and the consecutive safety cars offer two possibilities for Tristan Vautier to reverse the trend for AKKA-ASP.

At the last restart, Tristan Vautier tried to get as close as possible to Yelmer Buurman, but made a small error in turn 3, which gave Buurman a sufficient margin, who nevertheless showed a generally higher pace.

Engel – Buurman – Stolz therefore won ahead of Vautier – Marciello – Juncadella, Marciello being crowned in the cumulative GT Series Drivers ranking, like AKKA-ASP among the Teams. The podium is completed by the #488 Ferrari 3 GT72 – SMP Racing from Rigon – Molina – Aleshin.

For its last race, the No. 3 Jaguar G54 – Emil Frey Racing de Grenier – Fontana – Zaugg took a nice fourth place, coupled with a victory and a Silver Cup title. The Pro-Am is dominated by the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 n°27 – Daiko Lazarus of Cipriani – Ramos – Crestani while the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 n°77 – Barwell Motorsport of Amstutz – Matchiski – Abra wins in the Am Cup.

Race ranking

Discover the full report of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup final in Barcelona, ​​in issue 2185 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.