Mikkel Mac gets to Barcelona as the points leader, a position he has held since the very beginning, but with only a 3-point advantage. The 25-year-old driver of the Luzich Ferrari 488 will again have as team mate the reigning WEC GT world champion Alessandro Pier Guidi, with whom he has conquered the 4 wins so far. The personable Dane approaches the decisive weekend with his usual cool: “We knew that the title would be decided at the very end, the GT Open is just so! I look forward to this last round and feel no special pressure. We need to do things as we have done them throughout the season and give our best. I am totally confident in the team, which has proved competitive since day one, and in our package. It has been an intense season, which started very well for us; then, during the summer, we had a few issues that we overcame, and now we are strong again. The best of 2018 is seeing the terrific team work and team spirit we have been able to craft.”

Fran Rueda and Andrés Saravia, winners of three races with their BMW M6, will play the role of the best-placed outsiders, something that the Spaniard and Teo Martín Motorsport have already experienced last year. “To be again fighting for the tile is already a great achievement”, reckons 22-year-old Rueda, “and the difference this year is that the gap is closer. If we do things well, we have our chances, although we do not depend entirely on ourselves and anything can happen. We’ll approach things calmly and we’ll try to have a weekend as good as the Monza one. But however it’ll go, it has been a great season!”.

The task will be harder for reigning champion Giovanni Venturini and Dutchman Jeroen Mul, whose Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracán lies 25 points behind, with a maximum of 30 still to be awarded. “Reasonably, we do not have a lot of chances”, says the Italian, “but it’s already something to be in this position, despite not scoring any point in four races. We were competitive, but always at the limit, if compared to our rivals. We missed the last little something, and we will happy to have the Evo version of the Huracán next year, as the current car has probably reached its ceiling.”

PRO-AM, AM AND TEAMS: MORE BATTLES IN THE MENU

Nothing is done in the Pro-Am class where 10 points separate the Daiko Lazarus Racing Lamborghini of Miguel Ramos-Fabrizio Crestani and the SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG of Tom Onslow-Cole and Valentin Pierburg. Ten points is exactly the equivalent of one race win: the silver Mercedes has clinched five and the leading pair … none yet! The battle could not offer a starker contrast between panache and consistency! 15 points behind, Marcelo Hahn, with the Drivex Mercedes, is still on the race. The Brazilian, again paired with Allam Khodair, and the Spanish team are hoping in a positive end of the season, after the drama lived at Monza with the accident of Alan Hellmeister, who is recovering well from his injuries.

In the Am class, Andrzej Lewandowski and Giulio Borlenghi are only 2 points away from clinching mathematically the title. The Pole and the Brazilian, at the wheel of the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini, have considerably raised their bid thanks a very strong second part of the season.