Black Falcon Disqualified, Marciello Provisionally Wins Title

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Black Falcon has been disqualified from Sunday’s Blancpain GT Series finale at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, promoting Raffaele Marciello to provisional Endurance Cup champion.

The No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, which initially won the race, was disqualified after stewards found tape on the inlet tract, breaching Articles 6 and 11 of the Blancpain GT Sporting Regulations.

The car was driven by Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz.

According to the stewards’ decision, the team has “[acknowledged] the presence of the tape but state that it has been normal practice for the team to present their cars in this condition since running Mercedes-AMG cars and that no performance advantage is gained.

“The stewards, however, consider that this represented a technical non-compliance.”

The team has appealed the decision, and so the race results and championship standings remain provisional for now. 

However, it provisionally makes Marciello champion in the Endurance Cup, after already winning the Sprint Cup and overall classification.

The Italian is also the provisional race winner with his No. 88 AKKA ASP Mercedes that he shared with Daniel Juncadella and Tristan Vautier.

RESULTS: Barcelona (Updated, Provisional)

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.