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Blancpain GT Field Remains at 51 for Paul Ricard

No additional cars for six-hour Blancpain GT enduro at Paul Ricard, 51 entries listed…

Photo: Olivier Beroud Images

No additional entries are set to take part in this weekend’s six-hour Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup race at Circuit Paul Ricard, unlike the case in recent years.

The event usually attracts extra cars in preparation for July’s Total 24 Hours of Spa, but this year will feature 51 entries, just one more than the last round at Silverstone.

Last year’s race saw a total of 58 cars, including several cars which were only competing at Paul Ricard and Spa, as well as increased factory support, most notably from Audi.

ENTRY LIST: Paul Ricard

Several changes have been made to the entry list ahead of the championship’s second-longest race, which also clashes with DTM for the third event running.

The extra car since the last race comes in the return of Car Collection Motorsport with its Audi R8 LMS GT3 driven by Frank Stippler, Dimitri Parhoger and Antonio Forne Tomas.

Sainteloc Racing has placed both Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Haase in the same Audi alongside Simon Gachet. 

This leaves Marc Rostan, Nyls Stievenart and Christian Kelders in the sister car, which moves down from the Pro-Am Cup to Am class.

Thomas Jaeger, who made an appearance with Strakka Racing at Silverstone, moves to AKKA ASP as a replacement for Tristan Vautier.

The Frenchman will be on IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship duty this weekend, with Jaeger driving the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Adam Christodoulou and Raffaele Marciello.

Strakka has changed the lineups in both of its Pro cars with Alvaro Parente returning to the No. 43 car alongside Maxi Buhk and Maxi Goetz.

Only Adrien Tambay has been retained in the No. 44 car since the last race. He is set to be joined by Christian Vietoris and Felipe Fraga this weekend.

Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron were the only two-driver lineup at Silverstone but AF Corse has enlisted Gianluca de Lorenzi as a second Bronze-rated pilot for the six-hour race in the No. 51 Ferrari 488 GT3.

ROWE Racing has overhauled its lineups to put Ricky Collard, Nick Yelloly and Chaz Mostert in the No. 98 BMW M6 GT3 and Jesse Krohn, Jens Klingmann and Tom Blomqvist in the No. 99 car.

On-track action gets underway on Friday ahead of the race which begins at 5:45 p.m. local time on Saturday evening.

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

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