The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosts the final round of the 2021 International GT Open, as it has for 14 of the past 16 seasons (the exceptions being in 2009 at Portimão and 2019 at Monza), with 15 of those seasons seeing the title go down to the wire (the exception was 2013).
With 29 cars on the grid (18 in the International GT Open and 11 in GT Cup Open Europe), Barcelona will also keep up with the tradition of holding the best entry of the year.
Duel For The Title
With 30 points still to be awarded, the fight for the overall title remains open, although championship leaders Frederik Schandorff and Michele Beretta, with their Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini Huracán have a comfortable advantage of 22 points (in reality, 16, as they would have to drop their worst result, currently a 6-point finish) over Andy Soucek.
Soucek, at Lechner Racing, will do everything possible on his home track to challenge the leaders. He shares the Porsche of the Austrian team with Al Faisal Al Zubair, who having missed one event, is not on equal points. This means, theoretically, that the title could be decided on Saturday.
The Pro class will include other serious candidates for a race win. Yuki Nemoto-Baptiste Moulin in the other car of VSR will certainly race to help their teammates, but at the same time fight for third spot in the standings and for a maiden win. VSR has already secured the Teams title.
Anglo-Bahraini squad 2 Seas Motorsports is back after a sensational debut at Monza, where they clinched one win, with Ethan Simioni and Martin Kodrić willing to impress again.
TF Sport is back for a fourth outing this year with its Aston Martin Vantage, again in the very capable hands of US racers Michael Dinan-Robby Foley.
On their side, AKKA ASP is not departing from its tradition to end the European racing season at Barcelona. This time the Mercedes AMG will be entrusted to GT experts Jim Pla and Thomas Drouet, both making their debut in the series.
Inception Close To Glory In Pro-Am
In the Pro-Am class, Brendan Iribe and Ollie Millroy are one point away from securing the title with their Inception Racing McLaren 720S. The British squad has also its other car, driven by Nick Moss-Joe Osborne, in third position in the standings.
The only one other class title contender is the Nordic pair of the Reno Racing Honda NSX, but Jens Reno Møller and Marcus Påverud effectively have to hope that Inception has a very bad weekend.
Behind the leading trio there are plenty of other potential podium finishers.
Fresh from its first success at Monza, Gerhard Tweraser-Jan Seyffert will try it again with the HP Racing International Lambo, and so will the AKM Motorsport Mercedes AMG of Loris Spinelli, again paired with Florian Scholze.
Balfe Motorsport is back with its Audi R8 LMS with Shaun Balfe-Adam Carroll aiming at finishing the season on a high. Also back for the last round is Olimp Racing, whose Mercedes AMG is entrusted to Marcin Jedliński-Karol Basz. It will be third appearance of the year for Twin Busch by Equipe Vitesse, also with a Mercedes, and Mario Hirsch-Dominik Schraml.
Add to the list a great one-off entry. AF Corse comes to Barcelona with a Ferrari 488 for GT expert Cédric Sbirrazzuoli and Hugo Delacour.
In the Am class, with the title already in the hands of Giuseppe Cipriani, there will be an interesting three-way battle. Olimp Racing is fielding its Audi R8 LMS for Stanislaw Jedliński-Krystian Korzeniowski, who alredy won twice at the Red Bull Ring.
Catalan squad Baporo Motorsport is back for its home event with its Mercedes AMG entrusted to local heroes Dani Díaz-Varela and Jaume Font, already seen at the Hungaroring.
AF Corse is fielding in this class its second Ferrari, for the pair composed of Brazil’s Oswaldo Negri and Jay Schreibman, who comes from the Ferrari Challenge North America.
The Nova Race Honda NSX is sadly a withdrawal after illness forced the absence of Alberto Lippi.
