After more than a month off, at Le Castellet the spotlight will be on next week end for the third round of Blancpain Endurance Series 2016. On the modern french circuit over 50 GT race cars are attended for an event that promises to be really hot, as well as an important test ahead of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps; the challenge on Paul Ricard racetrack will be 6 hours long, starting in the late afternoon with the chequered flag scheduled for midnight on Saturday June 25th. Among the drivers who will take part in the event, the italians Michele Beretta and Andrea Piccini are looking for a very good result: as usual, they will share one Lamborghini Huracan GT3 together Luca Stolz; after the good pace shown in Monza and Silverstone, the target for Beretta and Piccini it is to set a good qualify in order to collect the first important points of the season.
Andrea Piccini: “We arrive in Le Castellet conscious to have everything to get a good result. In Monza and Silverstone races we proven to be fast in the race, but we were never able to exploit the new tires in the qualifying session. We must be able to set a good time for the starting grid, then 6 hours are long and we can fight for important points. Paul Ricard is a particular circuit that should be good for our car’s features, although a bit penalized in terms of power due to Balance of Performance, not so good for our GT3; anyway Lamborghini has still a good top speed thanks to a very low drag.”
For Michele Beretta, the appointment on french soil comes after the tests completed last week in Nurburgring, to prepare the Sprint series round scheduled in the following week end. A period that promises to be intense for the young driver from Lecco who is well prepared: “We have carried out important test, before at Red Bull Ring and then in Nurburgring – Beretta tells us before his departure to Le Castellet – where we had the opportunity to drive in both conditions, dry and wet, mainly focused on Nurburgring race. About Paul Ricard, we arrive there after the winter test where we had collected interesting data; it will be a very hot week end but we are ready to give 100% in a long and difficult race, but also useful to test different things for the most important event of the season, the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.”
The two-day in Le Castellet provides free practice at 14:10 on Friday 24th followed by pre-qualifying session at 17:05. Saturday 25th the Blancpain Endurance Series drivers will be on track 9:45 for the qualify while the race will heat on from 18:00 to 24:00, broadcast in live streaming on www.blancpain-gt-series.com