Blancpain Sprint Battle Continues at Zandvoort

Seven weeks after the last round at Brands Hatch the Blancpain Sprint Series gets underway again in the dunes of Zandvoort this weekend.

There are 21 cars entered for the third round of the season, with Alex Zanardi the most notable absentee from the entry list for the Dutch round. The Italian will compete in a handbike race, a deal he agreed to before he signed with ROAL Motorsport.

ENTRY LIST: Zandvoort

Despite Zanardi not taking part in The Netherlands the number of BMW Z4 GT3s entered will be the same as at Brands Hatch. BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert has entered a single car for the remainder of the season, while Fortec Motorsports will have both Mercedes SLS AMG GT3s back on track.

As reported ADAC GT Masters team Herberth Motorsport will compete at Zandvoort with a Porsche 997 GT3 R for Dutchman Jaap van Lagen and Robert Renauer.

Nelson Piquet Jr will be back behind the wheel of a BMW Sports Trophy Team Brasil BMW Z4 GT3. The Brazilian missed the British round as he was competing in the FIA World Rallycross round at Lydden Hill, but will return to the Blancpain Sprint Series in his mother’s homeland.

HTP Motorsport and its drivers Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz head to The Netherlands as the Blancpain Sprint Series points leaders. The German duo has scored 51 points in the first two rounds, nine more than Grasser Racing Team’s Hari Proczyk and local hero Jeroen Bleekemolen.

At Brands Hatch Bleekemolen and Proczyk won both races in their Lamborghini and the two drivers look to repeat that result in front of Bleekemolen’s home crowd.

The third Dutch driver on the grid is Stef Dusseldorp. Dusseldorp and team mate Sergei Afanasiev hope to bounce back from a double DNF at Brands Hatch, which has pushed them down to seventh in the points. A third place finish at Paul Ricard last weekend gave the team a confidence boost for Zandvoort.

Missing in action is the Reiter Engineering-run Lamborghini of Peter Kox and Marc A. Hayek. The car was withdrawn ahead of the second round at Brands Hatch and has not been entered for round three this weekend.

Qualifying at Zandvoort will commence at 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) Saturday morning, followed by the Qualifying Race at 1.45 p.m local time. The Main Race will start at 11.45 a.m. Sunday, due to the Zandvoort Masters of Formula 3 race start at 2 p.m. local time.