Silver Cup Field Grows as Blancpain GT Heads to Misano

Photo: Olivier Beroud Images

The Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup heads to Misano this weekend with an increased Silver Cup field including two Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars.

Twenty-two cars are entered with the most notable changes coming from Silver Cup and the revised lineups for WRT and the return of the team’s fourth car.

The No. 3 Audi R8 LMS GT3, last seen at Zolder in April with a one-off driver lineup of Alessio Picariello and Gilles Magnus, returns for the third Sprint Cup event of the season.

Adrien de Leener and Ricardo Feller will drive the car with de Leener making his return to the team and Feller set for his series debut.

Furthermore, the No. 17 WRT Audi has moved from the Pro Cup to the Silver Cup as a result of Sheldon van der Linde replacing Robin Frijns as Stuart Leonard’s co-driver with the Dutchman on DTM duty in the fourth consecutive Blancpain GT weekend which has clashed with the German series.

Audi Sport Slovakia will make its debut after announcing its partial-season program in January.

The outfit is set to add the Hungaroring, Nürburgring and Barcelona rounds to its Misano debut with an Audi driven by Jirko and Christian Malcharek.

WRT’s Alex Riberas and Christian Mies lead the overall Blancpain GT standings while Stuart Leonard is out front in the Sprint Cup points.

Free Practice will get underway on Friday afternoon ahead of Race 1 on Saturday at 7:40 p.m. and Race 2 on Sunday at 2 p.m. local time.

Jake Kilshaw

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