A beefed up Blancpain Sprint Series grid has travelled to Misano this weekend for the penultimate round of the season, with WRT hoping to claim the title. The return of the Fjordbach-brothers ISR Audi R8 plus two Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracans brings the total number of entries to a rather more healthy 18.
As expected the Always Evolving Motorsport Nissan was back and in its black and turquoise livery which the team ran in the Blancpain Endurance Series finale a few weeks back – after an impressive showing at the ‘Ring, leading the field in the early part of the race under the control of Craig Dolby, the team is looking to continue to ride the momentum and score a pair of decent results here.
Fastest after two Free Practice sessions was the #63 Grasser Lambo of Patrick Kujala and Mirko Bortolotti after a lap of 1:45.546 in the second practice session set by Bortolotti. The second session was held under floodlights in preparation for tomorrow’s night race, the first time the series in its current form has raced with headlights ablaze.
The weather in Italy wasn’t too kind to the teams, as both sessions ran in wet conditions, making it hard for the runners to get into a rhythm. The pace definitely improved with the weather though in the second session, as the FP1 pace was slower and headed by the championship-leading #1 WRT Audi after Robin Frijns lap of 1:46.517; the #3 WRT Audi and #33 Rinaldi Ferrari were two and four tenths back respectively in second and third on the sheets.
In the second session, Frijns and his teammate Laurens Vanthoor finished up second after reeling off a lap .143 behind the Grasser Lambo. The sister #19 Grasser Silver Cup entry of Alberto Di Folco and Jeroen Mul finished up third.
There were no on-track incidents of note.
Tomorrow’s on-track action starts off with Qualifying, taking place at at 14.00. The Qualifying Race starts at 20.45. (Local time in Italy).
Stephen Kilbey
