Largest Sprint Cup Grid of Season Set for Hungaroring

Photo: Olivier Beroud Images

The Blancpain GT Series is set for its largest Sprint Cup grid of the season in this weekend’s Hungaroring rounds, with the addition of two new entries and return of Michael Broniszewski.

A total of 23 cars are slated to take part in the penultimate Sprint Cup weekend of the season, as the series gets back underway following its post-Total 24 Hours of Spa break.

Endurance Cup regular Black Falcon has entered a car while SunEnergy1 Racing, as revealed by Sportscar365 last week, will join the field.

Kenny Habul and Suzuka 10 Hours winner Tristan Vautier will drive the AKKA ASP-run SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Hubert Haupt and Luca Stolz share the Black Falcon Mercedes.

Broniszewski is also set to make his racing return after being ruled out for much of the season by an injury sustained at Monza during the opening Endurance Cup weekend. 

He will be joined by Giacomo Piccini in the No. 11 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, competing in the Pro-Am Cup.

As expected, the Emil Frey Racing Jaguar G3 won’t taken part in Hungary, but is set to make its final appearance at the Endurance Cup finale at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Furthermore, Team Parker Racing has pulled its Bentley Continental GT3 after a troublesome weekend at Misano for Josh Caygill and Aron Taylor Smith.

Markus Paltalla will replace Stephane Ortelli at Emil Frey Lexus Racing with the Monegasque driver still recovering from his accident at Spa.

Alex Riberas and Christopher Mies lead both the overall and Sprint Cup standings heading into the weekend.

Free Practice 1 will kick off on-track action on Friday morning while Saturday and Sunday will each hold one 60-minute race. 

Jake Kilshaw

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