Fabian Schiller wins the silver cup ranking in Belgian Zolder
09. Juni 2017 Back to overview »

Fabian Schiller and his team mate Jules Szymkowiak finished the third event of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in Belgian Zolder with a victory at the silver cup as well as the overall eighth place on the overall list of rankings. The German-Dutch driver-duo with their Mercedes-AMG GT3 had already caused quite a stir during the qualification race on Saturday on the ca. four km long Circuit Terlaemen by driving forward to 17th place from the last starting position, the 33rd, and thereby achieved second place on the list of rankings for new drivers without professional status.

After his somewhat disappointing past two events in Great Britain, Fabian Schiller was eager to achieve a countable result now. During the first free training he drove around the former Grand Prix track in the Belgian province Limburg in 1:31,350minutes, which was enough for 12th place. During the second free training things went even better, because the sports car of the team HTP Motorsport became almost a whole second faster and came in fifth in the end, even though Schiller was only 0,1seconds behind the best time.

Schiller and Szymkowiak had to deal with a major setback at qualifying then, because the Mercedes with starting number 85 was sent back to the last position of the starting grid due to a an offence during the past race in English Brands Hatch, where the Dutchman had caused a racing accident. The two drivers then drove past 16 opponents, which only shows what could have been possible from a better starting position.

As usual, the result of the qualification race on Saturday set the starting positions for the one-hour-race on Sunday and Fabian Schiller and Jules Szymkowiak immediately continued their catching-up race. In optimal conditions, the youngest driver-duo (20 and 21 years old) raced forward through the field of participants with flawless stints and fought their way forward place after place. After 36 laps the two juniors of the Altendiez racing team crossed the finish line only two places behind their sister car manned with professional drivers Franck Perrera and Maximilian Buhk on eighth place on the overall list of rankings. Thereby they were triumphant for the third time during the course of the season so far in the silver cup class and considerably strengthened their leading position with currently 121 points.

Fabian Schiller wasn’t completely content with the course of the racing weekend though. “We travelled here with high expectations and wanted to drive for a place on the podium”, the Bonn-born said after the race. “In these past races we always had the potential to end up among the top five but due to mistakes during qualifying we didn’t get a good starting position and then it’s difficult to catch up. In the races Jules and I had the right pace and pushed as hard as we could. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was perfect to drive as usual. To have at least achieved a class victory again is a good feeling, but at the next races we want to get to the top on the overall list of rankings again as well.”

HTP-team leader Norbert Brückner also commented on the racing weekend of his team in Belgium with mixed feelings. “On the one hand we can be content because Maxi and Franck improved their position on the overall list of rankings considerably and we are only eight points behind the leaders at the team ranking. But it’s all the more annoying that we missed out on an even better result due to the penalty at the qualification race. Our juniors Jules and Fabian deserve high praise: From the back of the field to eighth place – awesome!”

The next event of the season of the Blancpain GT series is going to be a long-track race again and is going to take place on June 23rd and 24th on the Circuit Paul Ricard in Southern French Le Castellet. This third race of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup is going to be six hours instead of the usual three hours and is going to cover a racing distance of about 1000kilometers from late Saturday (6pm) until midnight.

Text: F. Wagner / Schiller Motorsport – Photos: Blancpain GT Series