After five rounds in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium the GT4 European Series will conclude in France this weekend. The final of the 2020 season will take place at the 5.822 km Circuit Paul Ricard and the Silver Cup, Pro-Am Cup and teams’ titles are still to be decided in Le Castellet.
Aston Martin drivers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet travel to Le Castellet as the leaders in the GT4 European Series Silver Cup. The AGS Events crew lead the championship with 172 points and have a 24-point advantage over Stéphane Lémeret and Gael Castelli in the CMR Toyota, with a maximum of 50 points to be scored in the final round of the season. Finishing ahead of the #8 Toyota in the first race of the weekend on Saturday would seal the championship for Hasse-Clot and Nouet.
Gabriele Piana and Bas Schouten are currently third in the championship, but with the RN Vision STS drivers not competing at Circuit Paul Ricard, three other drivers could still capture third in the Silver Cup standings. Thijmen Nabuurs and Jop Rappange are eight points behind in the V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R and they hope to bounce back from a DNF in the second race at Spa-Francorchamps. NM Racing Team’s Xavier Lloveras is another two points behind in the Mercedes-AMG GT4.
In the Pro-Am Cup, Allied Racing Porsche drivers Bastian Buus and Jan Kasperlik are leading with 197 points, followed by teammates Nicolaj Møller-Madsen and Jörg Viebahn with 170 points and Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport’s Cem Bölükbasi and Yagiz Gedik with 167 points. A race win in the first race of the weekend would decide the championship in favour of Buus and Kasperlik. In a different finishing order of the current Pro-Am Cup top three, the championship will be decided in the final race of the weekend on Saturday evening.
AGS Events’ Gilles Vannelet and Nicolas Gomar begin their home race with a 35-point advantage over Bob Herber in the Am Cup classification. They will be crowned champions at the end of the season, as Herber will not compete in the South of France. Former Am Cup champion Giuseppe Ghezzi still has a theoretical chance to take second in the championship, as he is currently 42 points Herber. However, Ghezzi is just 18 points clear of Ibrahim Okyay (Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport), which means a bad weekend could also see the Autorlando Sport driver drop out of the top three.
The season finale should bring AGS Events more silverware, as the French team also leads the battle for the teams’ title. After five of the six rounds, AGS Events has a 65-point lead over Selleslagh Racing Team and the Belgian squad only has a theoretical chance of beating their French rivals. However, previous seasons have shown that it’s not over until the finish flag is shown for the final time.
There will be a total of 19 cars on the grid at Circuit Paul Ricard, including one-off entries from Team Jouffruit by Vic’Team for Eric Tremoulet and Olivier Jouffret and AKKA-ASP Team for Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Jim Pla. R-Motorsport adds two Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4s to the grid as it prepares for a full-time GT4 European Series campaign in 2021, with Seb Perez and George Gamble driving the #762 entry and Henrik Lyngbye Pedersen and Markus Lungstrass in the #18 car. AGS Events has entered a third Aston Martin for Jonathan Mareschal and Fabien Baule. Former champion Max Koebolt joins Selleslagh Racing Team this weekend.
A spectacular night race on the 5.8-km Circuit Paul Ricard will conclude the 2020 GT4 European Series, with the start of the final race of the season scheduled for Saturday evening at 18.45, an hour and a half after sunset. The first race will start at 11:15 CET on Saturday. Qualifying for the two races will take place after dark on Friday evening, after two free practice sessions at 10:45 and 14:55 on Friday.
The final races of the season will be broadcasted live on the GT4 European Series website and Facebook page, as well as SRO Motorsports Group’s GT World YouTube channel. English and French commentary feeds will be available for both races.
