Team Black Falcon endured a rather difficult weekend during the second round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series at the Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain, with car #19 finishing 22nd overall and car #18 ending up 11 places behind in 33rd overall.
The weekend got off to a positive start as the #19 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal, Andreas Simonsen and Hubert Haupt lead the way in the Pre Qualifying Practice on Saturday.
Sunday’s morning Qualifying session was not as positive, with the #19 Black Falcon Mercedes losing the chance for a top spot on the starting grid due to a red flag in third and final part of the session. AlFaisal, Simonsen and Haupt had to settle for P14. The sister #18 Pro-AM car, shared between Yuri Loboda, Mikail Loboda, Vladimir Lunkin occupied the 39th spot.
Team Black Falcon’s misfortune started as the lights for the race turned green; Andreas Simonsen, starting from fourteenth on the grid, was struck by a competing car and dropped to the back of the grid as a result, but a superb performance saw him climb back all the way to P6.
Two hours in and the #19 Mercedes was running ninth overall, but a stop/go penalty was handed to Hubert Haupt for contact with another car; the penalty was later executed by Abdulaziz Turki AlFaisal, with the Saudi driver having to do it under a safety car period, which meant that he had to wait for the pit lane to re-open and thus lost a large amount of time, ultimately finishing 22nd overall, while the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes secured its first major GT finish in P33.
Team Black Falcon might have missed out on a top 10 finish, however, can still walk away with some positives, the most notable of which is the highly improved Qualifying and Race performance that should have helped the team score some points if it weren’t for all the on-track drama.
The third round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series will be taking place on June 29 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.