Misano Saturday Notebook

***Boutsen Ginion Racing’s BMW M6 GT3 could very well do the entire Blancpain Sprint Cup, with Maxime Martin as their main driver. The car would continue to run in the Pro-Am Cup. However, the BMW factory driver will be absent for the next round at Brands Hatch because of his DTM commitments, which will always have priority. Finnish driver Matias Henkola is the Belgian’s teammate for this weekend.

***Boutsen is also still planning to enter its Renault Sport R.S.01 in the Total 24 Hours of Spa (Am Cup). The team’s Oreca 03R is still available for competition. The LMP2 car was raced by Eurasia Motorsport in the Asian Le Mans Series over the past winter months.

***The launch of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 has been a big success. More than 20 customer teams will field 40 cars, competing in 78 race weekends, in 13 GT championships worldwide. Seven Huracán GT3s will race in Misano this weekend, three of those are entered by Grasser Racing Team. The Austrian team completed an impressive pre season testing program of over 20,000 kms.

***HTP Motorsport has four Mercedes-AMG GT3s at its disposal this season. The team has entered three cars in the Sprint Cup and two in the Endurance Cup. However, all four chassis will be in use this weekend as Wim De Pundert, one of the team’s owners, will compete in the Blancpain GT Sports Club.

***McLaren has not excluded the possibility of a GTE-spec McLaren in the future, with Bas Leinders stating: “McLaren will continue to look at different options…”

***The Audi R8 LMS will sport a new factory livery at the Nürburgring 24 and Total 24 Hours of Spa. The two factory cars entered by WRT and Phoenix are going to compete in colors of silver, red and black. The new look takes its cue from the livery of the Audi R18 LMP1 race car, as was the case in 2014.

***One single tire compound is now being used in the entire Blancpain GT Series, with the Endurance tires now also mounted on the Sprint Cup cars. This change also affects the Balance of Performance for certain cars.

***All nine GT3 manufacturers have a support truck on site at Misano. Even Porsche, which is only represented by the sole a-workx 991 GT3 R, has dedicated support staff at Misano.

***While on track action had already begun at Misano, several Endurance Cup teams were still testing at Monza in the north of Italy. Scuderia Praha was one of the teams on hand, running the new Ferrari 488 GT3 it will enter in the Italian Endurance Cup round in two weeks’ time. Furthermore, ROAL Motorsport and Classic & Modern Racing by Sport Garage were also present.

***Be sure to download the official SRO Spotter Guide, which features all 39 starters for today’s Qualifying Race, including all the new liveries and lineups. Click here to download the latest version.