Baku is gearing up for the 2013 FIA GT Series season finale this weekend. 28 cars have been flown to the capital of Azerbaijan for the Baku World Challenge by Aztexnika. On an all-new 4.380km street circuit the teams will fight for the titles in the Pro and Pro-Am categories.
Even though initial entrants Sport Garage and BMW Sports Trophy Team India have not made the trip to Azerbaijan in the end, a full grid of 28 GT3 cars will be competing in the streets of Baku. Seven McLaren, six Audi, four Mercedes and BMW, three Lamborghini, a pair of Porsches as well as a Corvette and a Ferrari make up an extraordinary field in the final FIA GT Series race of 2013 – and the last race before the series will be renamed to Blancpain Sprint.
FIA GT Series regulars Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, Sebastien Loeb Racing and HTP Gravity Charouz will be joined by top teams like Marc VDS Racing Team, Hexis Racing and Trackspeed. A number of teams have signed top rated drivers, with Maxime Martin, Rob Bell, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Danny Watts and Nick Tandy.
Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor go into the final race weekend leading the Pro standings. Their WRT teammates Frank Stippler and Edward Sandstrom are just six points adrift and will do everything to take the title on the fast Baku circuit. Niki Mayr-Melnhof is currently 26 points behind Ortelli and Vanthoor and the Austrian’s only hope to win the title is a double DNF for his teammates. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT only needs a handful of points to clinch the Teams’ title. Ortelli made it clear though that the Audi team will not travel to Azerbaijan for fun. “I think that this is not a race where we will just turn up, participate and collect points, this is a race where we will try to win,” said the Monegasque driver.
HTP Gravity Charouz’ Andreas Simonsen and Sergei Afanasiev are the Pro-Am points leaders and the Mercedes pair will defend a 19-point lead over GRT Grasser Racing Team’s Hari Proczyk. Afanasiev knows he and Simonsen are close to winning the title, but cannot celebrate anything yet. “Although we have a nice margin we are not taking anything for granted because there are a lot of variables with a new track, especially a street circuit,” said Afanasiev. “But we will be hoping to continue our great form and seal the Pro Am championship.”
In Azerbaijan Proczyk will be rejoined by quick Austrian Dominik Baumann, who missed the last round of the series in Navarra – and is therefore out of contention for the championship. Unfortunately there is no Nissan presence in Azerbaijan as Nissan GT Academy Team RJN will participate in the Dubai 24 Hours and the Baku World Challenge date change resulted in logistical issues. HTP Gravity Charouz, which will also run their third car in the Pro-Am class this weekend, will therefore claim the Pro-Am Teams’ title.
The full-season entries will fight with strong entries from BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS, Callaway Competition, 2012 Baku City Challenge winner Hexis Racing, MRS GT Racing, Trackspeed, Fortec Motorsport, TDS Racing and Boutsen Ginion Racing. They will fight for the prize fund of € 175.000. The winner of the Main Race will win € 100.000, the runner up will get € 50.000 and the third placed team will still get € 25.000. There will also be demonstration runs by 15 Historic F1 cars to entertain the spectators.
Marcel ten Caat (@dsceuroeditor)
