GT World Challenge

Team Parker Racing quickest during Blancpain GT two-day test

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Credit: Dirk Bogaerts / Blancpain GT Series

British GT‘s Team Parker Racing set the fastest lap time over the two days of the Blancpain GT Series test at Circuit Paul Ricard ahead of the 2018 season.

Out of the 45 cars that took part in the test last week, Team Parker Racing’s was one of a few that are set to compete in other series during 2018.

Callum Macleod and Ian Loggie were behind the wheel of the #30 Bentley Continental GT3 on the first day,  topping both the morning and afternoon sessions. The 1m52.454s lap time set during the afternoon was the fastest lap of the test, with no car going under 1m53 on Wednesday.

Attempto Racing‘s #66 entry with Pieter SchothorstSteijn Schothorst and Nicolas Pohler behind the wheel was continuously in the top seven in terms of times. The Audi set the second fastest time of the test on Tuesday and were just over 0.4s slower than the time set by Team Parker Racing, while they topped the timesheets on Wednesday afternoon. Both laps were set by Pieter Schothorst.

The track stayed dry and the weather sunny for the full test, helping teams deal with a Circuit Paul Ricard track that has been recently resurfaced and slightly modified over the winter break.

Six car manufacturers found themselves within the top four in at least one of the four sessions across the test, with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 the only car to feature in the top four of all sessions.

Outside of the Bentley setting the pace on Tuesday morning, the other three teams in the top four were running a Mercedes machine. Ram Racing was two-tenths off Team Parker Racing’s pace, with Black Falcon a tenth behind them. Strakka Racing rounded off the top four during the first session, the second Pro-Am entry alongside Ram Racing.

With Team Parker Racing and Attempto Racing the only two teams to set a lap under 1m53 during the test on Tuesday afternoon, it was Black Falcon again that went third fastest and became the best of the test. Team Lazarus in a Lamborghini Huracan was fourth fastest, with the team’s 1m53.239s lap being the sixth fastest over the whole test.

GRT Grasser Racing Team set the fastest lap time on Wednesday morning and ran 82 laps, the most out of anyone during the third session. Spirit of Race‘s Ferrari 488 Am entry with Alex Demerdjian behind the wheel was second fastest behind GRT Grasser but only ran 14 laps. Black Falcon’s Mercedes and Belgian Audi Club Team WRT finished off the top four for that session.

With Attempto Racing finishing off the final session of the test in third, it was R-Motorsport in second in the teams Aston Martin V12, the only time an Aston Martin car was in the top five times during the four sessions. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was third, improving on the time the team set in the morning by around 0.05s. Strakka Racing finished up the top four on Wednesday afternoon with only seven laps ran.

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