Barri-Bortolotti (Lamborghini Gallardo) get race-1 at Paul Ricard

In GT3, Imperiale Racing's lineup proceeded the two Ferraris 458 Italia of Casè-Giammaria and Lucchini-Pier Guidi, while in Gt Cup Bonaldi Motorsport's drivers proceeded team mates"El Pato”-Zanardini” and the other Gallardo of Mancinelli-Goldstein.

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Giacomo Barri and Mirko Bortolotti (Lamborghini Gallardo) won race-1 of the 4th round of the Italian GT Championship underway at the French track of Paul Ricard. The racers in force at Imperiale Racing proceeded the two Ferraris 458 Italia of Casè-Giammaria (Scuderia Baldini 27) and Lucchini-Pier Guidi (BMS-Scuderia Italia) that ended respectively 8"387s and 8"885s short of the leaders.

Lamborghini also dominated class GT Cup with three cars on the podium. The top step of the podium went to Tempesta-Iacone (Bonaldi Motorpsort), who lead team mates "El Pato"-Zanardini and Mancinelli-Goldstein (Eurotech Engineering).

Thanks to the second place in the race, Casè and Giammaria closed in to just one point to the leaders of GT3 class Mapelli and Schoeffler (Audi R8 LMS-Audi Sport Italia), while Iacone and Tempesta got the lead of GT Cup being three points clear of Omar Galbiati (Porsche 997-Antonelli Motorsport).

Race 2 will start tomorrow at 14:00hrs (local time) with live coverage on Raisport2 and web streaming on www.acisportitalia.it/GT.

Race-1 as it happened: Pole man Giammaria did not had problems at the start to keep the lead ahead of Ferrara, Balzan, Beretta, Schoeffler, Gagliardini and Capello, while the Gallardos driven by Mancinelli, Tempesta and "El Pato" dominated GT Cup since the beginning.

In the initial stages, Schoeffler had to concede his position to Gagliardini first and then to his team mate Capello, while on top Giammaria started pulling away from Ferrara and Balzan, that started an inflamed duel for P2.

At lap 5 Schoeffler regained his position to Capello, while Barri gained P7 a couple of laps afterwards from Berton and Schoeffler.

Lap ten opened the drivers change window, but Ferrara and Balzan kept going with their spectacular fight for P2, which allowed Giammaria to increase his lead to more than 5 seconds.

Back on track after the drivers change, the safety car was deployed due to an off by "Spezz". Benucci, who replaced Balzan, on top queued behind the safety car, followed by Casè, Magli, Carboni, Bortolotti, Mapelli, Zonzini, Donativi, Romani and Pier Guidi, while Goldstein in GT Cup confirmed to be the leader ahead of Zanardini and Venerosi.

The safety car exit with three laps to go inflamed the final minutes of the race that lived a red hot final. At the restart, Carboni spun and an unleashed Bortolotti managed to take Magli first and then Casè, getting afterwards the lead thanks to a great move to Benucci at lap 20.

Mapelli managed to get past Magli and his team mate Zonzini, while Benucci and Casè started a nice battle for P2, that was won by Scuderia Baldini's driver shortly afterwards.

Another strong protagonist of the final stages was Pier Guidi who closed in from the back and got close to the podium thanks to a move to Mapelli, thanks also to a slight contact. The Audi's driver had also to concede his position to team mate Zonzini.

At the flag, Bortolotti got a good win ahead of Casè who was good to keep Pier Guidi behind in the final lap, the others in order where Zonzini, Mapelli, Magli, Pezzucchi, Donativi, Romani and Iacone, who was the first of GT Cup. Bonaldi Motorsport's driver got past his team mate Zanardini in the final stages while Goldsten ended third of GT Cup.

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