Summer has arrived and the International GT Opens travels to the Austrian Alps for its fourth round of the season: it’s the Red Bull Ring, in the idyllic scenery of Styria’s mountains, hosting the event. This will be the second visit of the series to the cradle of Austrian motor racing, after a first stop in 2011. Glorious weather and high temperatures welcomed the GT Open then, and forecasts point to a similar situation this year.
The title battle is heating up as well, with four pairs in 11 points! After their first success of the season at Silverstone, Álvaro Parente-Miguel Ramos, the Portuguese pair driving Teo Martín’s McLaren 650S, are in the lead with tiny 10-point advantage. In second, there is a tie-up between two Ferrari pairs, Raffaele Giammaria-Ezequiel Companc (AF Corse), the only pair having won two races so far, and Alessandro Balzan-Nicola Benucci (Villorba Corse). Only one point adrift are Michele Rugolo-Pasin Lathouras, the other AF Corse top duo.
The fight is close also in the GT-Am category, with only two points separating Claudio Sdanewitsch-Ilya Melnikov and Filipe Barreiros (now regularly co-driven by Mads Rasmussen), in an all-AF duel.
The Red Bull Ring round will see a number of ‘come-backs’, thanks in great part to the stellar representation brought by AF Corse. Duncan Cameron-Matt Griffin will do their second outing of the season, while Giorgio Roda, last year’s GTS champion, is back and will drive alone and Thomas Flohr-Francesco Castellacci are set for their first appearance of the season.
On their side, Aleksander Talkanitsa father and son, who were GT Open contenders for years, are also returning under the banner of AT Racing, the usual entrant of the Belarus pair.
Krypton Motorsport is also back: the Italian team, which is enjoying an excellent season, will sport its Porsche 911R for Stefano Pezzucchi and Luca Pastorelli. Lamborghini’s colors, as usual, will be defended by AERT’s Gallardo, with Nebylitskiy-Barba, who showed podium pace at Silverstone, and the Baporo Motorsport Ferrari of Argentine pair Russo-López will play again the outside role.
In the GT Open Cup, the Radicals RXC V8 will again produce an entertaining show, with Abbott-Green and Unzurrunzaga leading the pack as they did in Silverstone.
Partnering with the GT Open in the rich racing programme of the weekend are the Euroformula Open, the SEAT León Eurocup, the Radical European Masters and the Euro Series.
Fans at home can follow all the Red Bull Ring action thanks to live coverage by major national broadcasters in key countries such as UK (BT Sport), Italy (Fox Sports 2), Spain (Teledeporte and Canal + Deportes), Portugal (Sport TV), Russia (Poverkhnost Sport) and Central Europe (Digisport), among others. In addition, pan-European coverage is ensured by Motors TV (43 countries). Races are also livestreamed with English commentary on our website www.gtopen.net.