The International GT Open heads East for its third round of the season and its yearly stop at the 4.381-km Hungaroring.
This year, the event will have a special taste, as a few thousands of spectators will be allowed, respecting all the precaution measures, in three of the grandstands around the track, breaking at least partly the long period of racing without public.
Action, on a technical track known for not allowing many overtaking opportunities, promises to be exciting and so does the fight on top of the standings, as the top two are separated by only 1 point (43 vs 42). Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair and Spain’s Andy Soucek lead, at the wheel of the Lechner Racing Porsche 911 R, with Frederick Schandorff and Michele Beretta on their heels, the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing pair being the only one to have taken two wins so far.
The other Lamborghini of the Italian team, entrusted to Yuki Nemoto and Baptiste Moulin, is a close third (36 points).
Bidding for victory in Pro will also be American aces Michael Dinan and Robby Foley, who after a stunning debut in European GT racing at Spa with the TF Aston Martin, will continue to explore the continent, this time with a Ferrari 488 of Kessel Racing, which reappears in a series where it gathered many successes.
In Pro-Am, the fight is also close between the two McLaren 720S of Brendan Iribe-Ollie Millroy (Inception Racing) and of Patryk Krupiński-Christian Klien (JP Motorsport), separated by 7 points.
They both will have an opportunity to extend their lead, in the absence of some of their direct contenders, but will have to battle with the Reno Racing Honda NSX of Jens Møller- Marcus Påverud, the HP Racing International of Jan Seyffert-Gerhard Tweraser, and the Mercedes AMG of Alex Moiseev-Loris Spinelli (AKM Motorsport, Markus Sattler-Nico Bastian (Winward) and of Olimp Racing. The Polish squad of the Jedlinskis father-and-son are back for their race closest to home soil, with new teammates. Marcin Jedliński will be associated to well-known GT racer Karol Basz in the Pro-Am car.
Olimp’s Am entry will see Stanisław Jedliński paired with Krystian Korzeniowski. In the class for Bronze drivers, all with Mercedes machinery, Giuseppe Cipriani (Il Barone Rampante) will have a perfect opportunity to take the leadership in the standings (where is second at the moment, 4 points from the top) as the AKM Motorsport car of his direct rivals is this time entrusted to the team’s boss Marco Antonelli and Gianluca Giraudi.
Completing the list a new entry, as Baporo Motorsport is back to the series with an AMG for Dani Díaz-Varela and Jaume Font. Both the team and the drivers have been seen in the GT Cup Open Europe in recent years, but the Catalan squad has a successful past in the GT Open where it used to run the SMP Racing entry, which took the title in 2014.
In Hungary too, the International GT Open will share the grid of the two races with the GT Open Cup Europe.
2021 Hungaroring GT Open Entry
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