Zandvoort was out of the Blancpain GT Series scene since 2016, when the Dutch circuit replaced Baku as the season finale, and despite some glimpses of action in the two Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe races of the weekend, the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 of Raffaele Marciello and Vincent Abril and the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Simon Gachet and Christopher Haase put the French colors on top with perfect runs in quite uneventful races.
Green flag was on for Race 1 and the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes took the lead in the drag race with the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini, but right after that the race had to be neutralized as both the No. 19 GRT Lamborghini and the No. 26 Sainteloc Audi spun and met the barriers.
10 minutes later the green flag was back and basically the No. 88 became safe to go as a Lamborghini battle between the No. 63 from GRT and the No. 563 FFF car. Practically all leaders opted for going with the unusual and pitted as early as possible, but this doesn’t change the situation on track, as the battle for second let the No. 88 go away even more.
The No. 63 was holding the pace so much that the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes and the No. 1 WRT Audi came along to fight, but without room to pass, everyone stuck to their positions while the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes crossed the line in first with a large margin.
The No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin won the Silver Cup after seeing the No. 90 AKKA-ASP Mercedes go off track, while the No. 519 FFF Lamborghini was the Pro-Am Cup winner.
On Race 2 it was an Audi front row led by the No. 25 Sainteloc car, though the action had to wait as the sister No. 26 Audi stopped on track and needed to be towed out to clear it. When the race started for real, basically the idea was to stay safe, which kept most of the positions unchanged.
With the circuit not offering a single overtaking point due to its nature, pit work had to be the trump card to climb up the field, which is how things worked for the No. 63 GRT Lamborghini to get into second place. With the No. 25 Audi and the No. 63 pretty much settled in their places, the action came in the battle for third overall, with the No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes trying to create room to pass the No. 1 WRT Audi, with Luca Stolz failing to do it under the remaining race time.
The No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin completed the Silver Cup sweep with another commanding class win while the No. 333 Rinaldi Ferrari recovered from the disastrous Race 1 to get the Pro-Am Cup win in Race 2.
Most of the teams and drivers will now prepare themselves for the TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa on July 27th and 28th, while the GT World Challenge Europe will only return on August 30th and September 1st at Nürburgring.
PHOTOS - SRO/Dirk Bogaerts Photography
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