Black Falcon Wins Barcelona, Endurance Cup Title

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman have been crowned Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup champions after winning Sunday’s finale at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon drivers led most of the three-hour race from pole position and edged out championship rival Raffaele Marciello who finished second along with co-drivers Tristan Vautier and Daniel Juncadella.

The No. 4 crew’s best result of the season before this weekend was a third-place finish at Monza.

Marciello did claim the overall Blancpain GT title after heading to the weekend with an 18.5-point lead over Alex Riberas and Christopher Mies, who finished the race 16th after Dries Vanthoor crashed into Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Black Falcon led all of the race apart from a short period at the start of the third hour when the Emil Frey Jaguar G3, on its last race, briefly made its way to the front by pitting under Full Course Yellow. 

The race had no other lead changes and saw little action at the front of the pack, with Engel able to open up a large lead in the opening stint ahead of Nicki Thiim in second.

The Dane passed Mies, who started second for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, on the first lap to move the No. 76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 into second.

The race had several incidents which brought out safety cars and FCYs, including one in the final stages that set the field up for a restart with five minutes to go after Struan Moore crashed the No. 22 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

Miguel Molina completed the podium with the AF Corse-run SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 that he shares with Davide Rigon and Mikhail Aleshin, while Mikael Grenier crossed the line fourth in the Emil Frey Racing Jaguar to take the Silver Cup win.

Daiko Lazarus Racing claimed Pro-Am Cup honors with its No. 27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Giuseppe Cipriani, Miguel Ramos and Fabrizio Crestani.

Barwell Motorsport won the Am Cup with its Lamborghini of Adrian Amstutz, Richard Abra and Leo Matchiski.

RESULTS: Barcelona

Jake Kilshaw

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