Grasser Wins Appeal; FFF Keeps Sprint Championship

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Grasser Racing Team has won its appeal against a disqualification from qualifying at Zandvoort, confirming Orange 1 FFF Racing Team’s Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli as Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe champions.

Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart raced under appeal in Race 2 at Zandvoort in July after initially being disqualified from Qualifying 2 when the data box on their car was found not to be working.

They went on to finish second in that race but the result ending up having large implications for the overall GT World Challenge Europe championship battle later in the season.

If results remained as they were, Caldarelli and Mapelli would hold onto their title but if the Grasser car were disqualified after the appeal was heard, a subsequent reshuffle in points from the Zandvoort race would give the title to Black Falcon’s Maro Engel and Luca Stolz.

For this reason, the championship standings decided in the GT World Challenge Europe finale at Hungaroring earlier this month remained provisional until the appeal was heard.

As Grasser won the appeal, the results remain the same and its fellow Lamborghini team FFF’s Caldarelli and Mapelli are confirmed as drivers’ champions.

Caldarelli and Mapelli are also in the battle for the overall Blancpain GT title which will be decided in this afternoon’s three-hour race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The final results for Zandvoort Race 2 can be viewed here.

Jake Kilshaw

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