BLACK FALCON takes second place overall and Silver Cup victory in Sprint Cup finale

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Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup round 5: race report Nürburgring

BLACK FALCON scored an impressive second place overall with their Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the second race of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup finale at the Nürburgring. It was mission accomplished for the team, as over the weekend BLACK FALCON’s drivers scored vital points in their pursuit of the combined Silver Cup championship, which takes results from both the Sprint and Endurance Cup elements of the series. This means BLACK FALCON driver Hubert Haupt heads to the final Endurance Cup round needing just a handful of points to secure the title.

Hubert Haupt (Germany) and Luca Stolz (Germany) teamed up to drive the #6 BLACK FALCON Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Luca putting his all into backing up Hubert’s title aspirations. Once again, the #6 AMG was quick out of the box, setting the fastest time for a Silver Cup car in both Free Practice sessions, ending the second session less than two tenths off the quickest lap overall. Hubert piloted the BLACK FALCON AMG during the first part of Qualifying, and his time put #6 14th overall on the grid for Race 1, third in Silver Cup. Luca took over the helm for the second part of Qualifying and set an absolutely blistering pace that placed #6 firmly on overall pole for Race 2, beating the second place car – an all-pro crewed Mercedes-AMG GT3 – by just 0.006 of a second in the dying moments of the session. 

Hubert avoided the results of exuberant starts by several cars ahead as the pack roared through the opening corner of Race 1, sensibly making his way through the scattered cars without issue before settling down to consolidate his position. Just a quarter of an hour into the race, a Full Course Yellow temporarily interrupted proceedings in order to recover a heavily damaged Ferrari, so Hubert was forced to maintain position almost until the pit window opened. Luca took over #6 at the halfway stop and put everything into his attempts to move forward, but the midfield pack was stubbornly difficult to penetrate. He brought #6 home 13th on the road but most importantly as the leading Silver Cup car. However, a post-race penalty cost the team dearly, dropping them back in the official results to be classified third in Silver Cup. 

BLACK FALCON’s fortunes in Race 2 would be far more positive. When the lights turned green for the rolling start, Luca blasted the AMG down the chute to the tight opening corner, managing to keep ahead of a gaggle of threatening GT3s behind him. Through the opening phase of the race Luca’s lead was under relentless pressure, and he had to keep his focus for every corner of every lap in his fight to keep ahead of his closest pursuer, a Pro-class AMG. BLACK FALCON eked out Luca’s stint to the maximum time allowed before bringing #6 into the pits for the hand-over to Hubert. It became a battle of pit-crews, but #6 was very slightly slower and Hubert had to follow the sister AMG out of the pits. Hubert got his head down in pursuit, and with an impressive performance kept within a handful of seconds of the Pro-class car, at times close enough for attempts to retake the lead. He easily matched the speed of the leading AMG, whose win allowed them to take the overall Sprint Cup Drivers championship, and Hubert crossed the line right on the tail of the winner. 

BLACK FALCON enter the Endurance Cup finale in Barcelona at the end of the month with a 15-point lead. You can support BLACK FALCON across all social media platforms. Follow the team via twitter.com/TeamBlackFalcon, facebook.com/teamblackfalcon/ and instagram.com/teamblackfalcon to get live action updates directly from the tracks, as well as fantastic images of the team in action.

Race Dates

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup 

Round 5: 28th-30th September (Spain, Circuit De Catalunya)

Images by SRO Motorsports Group / Dirk Bogaerts,Patrick Hecq