The green Tuscan hills will stage the 4th round of the Italian GT Championship this coming weekend. The circuit of Mugello will be the theater of the two races that mark the turning point of season 2017. On the contrary to what happened in the previous races, only two races will take place in this round with all the 32 lineups on track at the same time.

 
SUPER GT3: The highest class will see the Ferrari 488 driven by classification leader Stefano Gai (Black Bull Swisse Racing) coming from the victory in Monza and that led by Malucelli-Cheever (Scuderia Baldini 27) that follow 5 points short of the leaders as the cars to be beaten. The Black Bull Swisse Racing driver has raced alone in Misano and Monza as co-equiper Venturini was not available and the team is currently checking his availability for the two races.

The 488 run by Easy Race will see the presence of Marco Cioci that will replace the Brazilian driver Jaime Melo, who is in Brazil due to some family problems. The strong driver from Rome that comes from the second place of class GTE-Am at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will share driving duties with Niccolò Schirò, who was a great third in the two races in Monza.

The Maranello’s Red cars will have to face the challenge of the Lamborghini Huracans that dominated both races in Misano, but that are behind in the classification. Frassineti-Beretta (Ombra Racing) and Agostini-Zampieri (Antonelli Motorsport), will try and get the most of not having any time handicap on the Tuscan track and are the rivals with bigger chances on paper for the top step of the podium. An eye will nevertheless have to be kept also on the Audi R8 LMS driven by Treluyer-Ghirelli. Audi Sport Italia’s lineup was close to the victory in Monza, after the unlucky exits to Imola and Misano, and pulled two great second places in Monza and therefore in Mugello they might get the first win of the season.

Among the non-Pro lineups, Comandini-Cerqui are leading behind the wheel of the BMW M6 GT3. The BMW Team Italia drivers are heading to Mugello as favorites to keep their victorious momentum as they already collected six wins. Veglia-Valente (Lamborghini Huracan-Antonelli Motorsport), Cassarà-Gentili (Lamborghini Huracan-Ombra Racing) and the Japanese Motoaki Ishikawa (Ferrari 488-AF Corse) are hunting for the top step of podium anyway.

 
Petri Corse Motorsport will field a new entry on the Lamborghini Huracan: the Italian Andrea Palma will share the cockpit with the Israeli Bar Baruch. 
 

 

GT3: Another Porsche-Ferrari-Corvette will certainly characterize GT3. The classification currently sees Venerosi-Baccani on top, as the Ebimotors pairing is leading the two 458 Italia driven by La Mazza-Magli (Easy Race) and Nicola Benucci (MP1 Corse), that will be sharing again driving duties with Simone Niboli, while Colajanni-Del Castello are behind on the Z06R run by Erreci Proracing.

 
SUPER GT CUP: The duel among Vincenzo Sospiri Racing drivers will characterize the two races reserved to the Lamborghini Huracans. Vainio-Tujula, Liang Ja-Ortiz and Cazzaniga-D’Amico, are all standing within fourteen points and will challenge each other for the top step of the podium. The three Antonelli Motorsport’s cars driven by Matteo Desideri, Takashi-Basz and Perolini-Sartori, as well as Mauro Trentin (Petri Corse Motorsport) and Imperiale Racing’s Benvenuti-Demarchi and Alessandro Bonacini with the new Nicola Pastorelli will try and slide in the fight too.

 
GT CUP: Two Porsche 997 will compete in GT Cup. Class leaders Eugenio Pisani (Siliprandi Racing), will drive alongside co-equiper Walter Palazzo challenging La Mazza-Nicolosi (Ebimotors). Francesco La Mazza will be quite busy as he will be competing in (GT3 and GT Cup) and will run the two stints on two different cars (Ferrari 458 Italia and Porsche 997).

 

GTS: Some new entries joined entry level. The second Porsche Cayman will be run by Ebimotors for Maino-Arrigosi and another by Kinetic Racing for Spiridinov-Veronesi. Luca Magnoni (Ginetta G55-Nova Race) is leading the classification at 79 points, but only seven points separate Sabino De Castro (Porsche Cayman-Ebimotors) from the top and twelve Nicola Neri, who will share the wheel of the Kinetic Racing’s Cayman with Mauro Pizzola in Mugello. GTS entry list is completed by Marchetti-Carboni, on the second Ginetta G55 run by Nova Race.

THE PROGRAMME: The fourth round of the season will have a different format with only two races instead of the usual four. Free practice will take place on Friday (from 9 to 9.45 and from 12.10 to 12.55), while the two qualifying session will follow (from 17 to 18,25). Race-1 will take place on Saturday afternoon at 16, while Race-2 will get underway on Sunday at 13.15. Both races will be run on the length of 48 minutes +1lap and will be shown by RaiSport on Saturday at 20 and Sunday at 17. The live streaming feed will be available at www.acisport.it/CIGT.

 

 

 

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