After a break of almost two months, the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup heads to Monza this weekend for the penultimate round of the season with a bumper 52-car grid expected, headlined by 19 cars in the PRO category.
Comtoyou Racing’s 24 Hours of Spa-winning trio of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim arrive with a 15-point championship lead aboard their #007 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo. They stand a slim chance of sealing the title this weekend, with 26 points available this weekend and 34 at November’s season finale at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Tresor Attempto Racing’s #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Alex Aka, Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase is second in the championship, one point ahead of GRT Grasser Racing Team’s Marco Mapelli, Jordan Pepper and Franck Perera, who won last time out at the Nürburgring aboard their #163 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2.
A clash with IMSA’s ‘Battle on the Bricks’ at Indianapolis has forced several teams to make changes to their driver line-up. ROWE Racing, who finished 1-2 at Monza last season, have added Robin Frijns and Maxime Oosten to their #98 BMW M4 GT3 alongside Marco Wittmann.
Sérgio Sette Câmara will make his GT3 debut aboard Boutsen VDS’ #9 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, whilst Kévin Estre replaces Laurin Heinrich in Schumacher CLRT’s #22 Porsche 911 GT3.R (992).
At Iron Lynx, Edoardo Mortara and Leonardo Pulcini join Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, with Valentin Haase-Clot replacing Ross Gunn in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
The ‘Battle on the Bricks’ has also impacted the five-car Gold Cup class, where Supercars driver Broc Feeney is replacing Mikaël Grenier aboard AlManar Racing by GetSpeed’s #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. AlManar Racing by GetSpeed currently sits second in the standings, nine points behind Sainteloc Racing’s #25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla.
The Silver Cup field is down to nine cars for this weekend, following the withdrawal of Madpanda Motorsport’s #90 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from the rest of the Endurance Cup. The team is still set to contest the Sprint Cup finale at Barcelona on 12-13 October.
GRT Grasser Racing Team have made two changes to the driver line-up of their #19 Huracan GT3 Evo2, with Baptiste Moulin returning after previously racing for the team at the 24 Hours of Spa and Artem Petrov making his first GT World Challenge start of the season.
Saintéloc Racing are yet to confirm who will join Ivan Klymenko in their #26 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Winward Racing’s Daan Arrow, Colin Caresani and Tanart Sathienthirakul lead a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1-2-3 in the Silver Cup standings, with them 20 points ahead of Boutsen VDS after finishing on the podium at every race so far this season.
The Bronze Cup has grown to 19 cars for Monza, having featured a season-low of 15 entries last time out.
Kessel Racing’s pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s return after missing the Nürburgring. The #8 features an unchanged trio of Nicolò Rosi, Niccolo Schiro and David Fumanelli, who won the class at the Paul Ricard season opener. Ben Tuck is the only returnee to the #74, where he is joined by Ashish Patel and Alex Fontana, who share a Porsche in GT Open.
BMW Italia Ceccato Racing will make its season debut with a BMW M4 GT3 for Marco Cassará, Philippe Denes and Felice Jelmini.
Optimum Motorsport are another team returning after a round away, with their #27 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo for Mark Radcliffe and Rob Bell.
Ollie Millroy is currently listed as the third driver in this car, but the Briton is also entered with the team at the ‘Battle on the Bricks’ and it’s extremely unlikely he’ll be able to contest both.
The Bronze Cup features multiple driver changes, with Christian Hook returning to Rinaldi Racing’s #333 Ferrari 296 GT3 after a round away and Alexander Fach replacing Loek Hartog in Rutronik Racing’s #97 Porsche which won at the Nürburgring. At Garage 59, James Baldwin is a late replacement for Christopher Salkeld in their #158 McLaren.
Andrea Bertolini, and father-and-son duo Louis and Jef Machiels, lead the Bronze Cup standings aboard their #52 AF Corse 296 GT3 despite a non-score at the Nürburgring, with them four points ahead of Sky-Tempesta Racing’s similar Ferrari.
Image courtesy of SRO
