TEAM WRT ENGAGED THIS WEEKEND IN SPRINT CUP TITLES BATTLE AT BARCELONA AND HOME RACE AT ZOLDER IN THE DTM

TEAM WRT ENGAGED THIS WEEKEND IN SPRINT CUP TITLES BATTLE AT BARCELONA AND HOME RACE AT ZOLDER IN THE DTM

08/10/2020

It’s again a double commitment weekend for Team WRT, but one of the greatest importance.

At Barcelona, the Belgian squad will be engaged in its first titles battle of the season, as the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup reaches the final and decisive round. The Audi R8 LMS of the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT will seek to bring home the Teams’ title while Charles Weerts and Audi Sport driver Dries Vanthoor go on to defend their leadership in the Drivers’ standings.

At Zolder, it will be again home race for WRT Team Audi Sport in the seventh round of the DTM. After showing a clear form improvement in the last round at the Nürburgring, the Audi RS 5 DTM of Ferdinand Habsburg, Harrison Newey and Fabio Scherer will have as a target to collect more points and possibly aim at a first podium. 

Team Principal Vincent Vosse is certainly excited at the challenge ahead: “It is going to be a very important weekend, as we will end a first series this season, the Sprint Cup, and we are leading in both the Teams’ and Drivers’ standings. There will be pressure on us, and it will be an unusual weekend with three races, with a lot of work. Still, we have two cars in contention for the title and we are determined to do what it takes to bring home first titles of 2020. In the DTM, it will be a second home race at Zolder, after Spa, and we aim at building up on the good basis laid at the Nürburgring in the last round.”

GTWCE Sprint Cup

The Sprint Cup of the GT World Challenge Europe reaches its final stop at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT three cars have much to fight for, as they will be fighting for both Teams’ and Drivers’ titles, arriving in Spain as the points leaders in both cases. Still, the advantage is minimal and anything can happen, giving this finale great suspense. The event format will include three races, like in Misano, to compensate the one event less held this year, which will certainly add difficulty and emotion to the challenge.

In the Teams’ standings, the Belgian squad has a 6.5 point advantage, and in the Drivers’ ranking, the gap for Charles Weerts and Audi Sport driver Dries Vanthoor, in the Skechers-livered car #32, is slightly smaller, 6 points. Third in the standings, 12.5 points aback, are Ryuichiro Tomita and Audi Sport driver Kelvin van der Linde (car #31), who although as

outsiders, are also still in the fight for the 2020 crown. In the Silver Cup, the Owega brothers, Hamza and Jusuf, in car #33, will fight to finish their first international GT season in the top-3.

Charles Weerts: “It’s a very important weekend for us, as it is the final round of the Sprint Cup and we are leading in the standings, by a tight margin. It will be very close, nothing is done, and we have to aim at keeping the first spot until the last race.”

Kelvin van der Linde: “I look forward to Barcelona, it’s always a great place to go, although we can expect a wet weekend, which should shake up things for the championship. It’s gonna be open for everyone, with close racing and a lot of drama! Ryuichiro and I have an outside chance, so it will have to be heads down and hopefully we can benefit from others’ mistakes and who knows, maybe at the end of the day, we can still get the title, but the target is really to finish in the top-3.”

Hamza Owega: “The aim is to take as many points and finish the championship on a high. We had a test day at Barcelona, so we know the track a bit, but we will use the Thursday and Friday sessions to improve as much as we can, and we’ll see what we can do in the races.”

DTM

WRT Team Audi Sport is ready for another home race in the DTM. After Spa-Francorchamps, the series is visiting Zolder, the always difficult track located near Hasselt, which will host the seventh round of the season, and also the eighth, as the DTM will again be in action in the Limburg track the following weekend.

Last year, the Belgian team showed good pace in Zolder and this could be a good base from where to start this year. Even more so, the progress shown in the last round at the Nürburgring indicate that the team is on a positive trend. The three young guns of the Belgian squad, Ferdinand Habsburg, Harrison Newey and Fabio Scherer, are more motivated than ever to shine in Belgium.

Ferdinand Habsburg: “Zolder is where I got my first DTM points last year. I quite like old-school tracks, as you need to have something more in you than patience to perform in such circuits. Also, the team being based not far from there will give us that extra push to do well.”

Harrison Newey: “We’re going to Zolder for the first of two weekends there, so it will be busy, with no time to hang around. The team had a good performance there last year, it’s of course different drivers this year, but we have a good basis and hope to provide same kind of results. I don’t know the track, but I have been working on the simulator, and it looks nice, it’s the kind of old-style track that I like, with gravel around and no space for mistakes, and some interesting lines. Ferdinand has told me that it is a fantastic track and I am going to enjoy it.”

Fabio Scherer: "I only know this circuit from television and from the simulator, but what I have seen so far makes me feel confident. I like these old-style tracks. And the fact that DTM history was already written there in the mid-Eighties makes it very special for me as a young driver. The track is very varied and offers fast and slow corners. This mixture should basically suit me. Concerning the set-up we recently found a good basis at the Nürburgring, so I hope that we can continue to build on this."

GTWCE Sprint Cup – Round 4
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 8-11 October 2020

Timetable (all in local time = CET)

Thursday 8 October 2020

14:00-18:00 Paid test

Friday 9 October 2020

10:00-11:20 Free Practice 1
14:50-16:10 Free Practice 2

Saturday 10 October 2020

09:15-10:35 Pre-Qualifying

12:50-13:10 Qualifying 1
17:15-18:15 Race 1 (1 hr)

Saturday 11 October 2020

09:00-09:50 Qualifying 2 & 3

12:25-13:25 Race 2 (1 hr)

16:30-17:30 Race 3 (1 hr)

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entries
#31 Ryuichiro Tomita (JP) – Kelvin van der Linde (ZA) Pro
#32 Dries Vanthoor (BE) – Charles Weerts (BE) Pro
#33 Hamza Owega (DE) – Jusuf Owega (DE) Silver


DTM – Round 7
Circuit Zolder, Belgium, 9-11 October 2020

Timetable (All times = CET)

Friday 9 October 2020
13:00-13:45 Free Practice 1
16:30-17:00 Free Practice 2

Saturday 10 October 2020
10:40-11:00 Qualifying Race 1
13:33-14:28 + 1 lap Race 1

Sunday 11 October 2020
10:25-10:45 Qualifying Race 2
13:33-14:28 + 1 lap Race 2

WRT Team Audi Sport entries (Audi RS 5 DTM)
#10 Harrison Newey (GB)
#13 Fabio Scherer (CH)
#62 Ferdinand Habsburg (AT)