Riccardo Agostini and Daniel Mancinelli (Audi R8 LMS) secured the victory in race-1 at the opening meeting of the Italian GT Championship Sprint held this afternoon at the Misano World Circuit. The Audi Sport Italia pairing proceeded the BMW M6 GT3 of Comandini-Zugg (BMW Team Italia) by 2”188s and the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Nemoto-Tujula (VSR) by 3”361s. The victory in GT4 went to Francesco Guerra and Simone Riccitelli (BMW M4 GT4-BMW Team Italia), while that of GT Cup to Sauto-Carboni (Porsche 991 4.0-Duell Motorsport). Race-2 is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at local 14,30 with live coverage on RaiSport and web streaming at www.acisport.it/CIGT and at the Facebook page of the championship www.facebook.com/CIGranTurismo.

RACE-1 CLASSIFICATION

GT3: After the win secured two weeks ago at Mugello with the lineup that included Mattia Drudi at the opener of the Endurance series, Riccardo Agostini and Daniel Mancinelli had the upper hand again on the Adriatico’s benches. Another good win came at the end of a wise race without mistakes by the two drivers of Audi Sport Italia. This win places them among the favourites to the win in the Sprint series too. In the first stint Mancinelli has always been close to the leading duo in P3 behind Spinelli and Di Amato, while Agostini took the lead on lap 25 when the safety car that came back to the pits and he overtook Vezzoni. Since then the race has been downhill for the Audi drivers that had a perfect car at their avail and the BMWs and Lamborghinis could not do anything else that join them on the podium, confirming the same result of Mugello. After that obtained in Mugello, Stefano Comandini and Marius Zug were second again in Misano. The 17 years old German came to the fore in the second stint when he installed himself in P2 taking over from the Italian driver in P4. In the Finale he managed to fend off a great Tujula. The Finn driver closed his effort in P3 with co-equiper from Japan Nemoto, who also ran a solid first stint overtaking Alessio Rovera (Ferrari 488), who was fourth at the flag following a nice overtaking move on Kroes – who took over from Pulcini – at the final lap. The AF Corse drivers ended again close to the podium as in Mugello, but they put in a good performance climbing up from P10 that Giorgio Roda kept from the go.

Another Lamborghini Huracan, that of Imperiale Racing driven by Galbiati-Venturini, was sixth and proceeded the two Ferrari 488 of Mann-Cressoni (AF Corse) and Michelotto-Hudspeth (Easy Race), and the Lamborghini Huracan of Cazzaniga-Marcucci (LP Racing). The tenth place went to Di Amato-Vezzoni, but RS Racing’s drivers also led the race with Di Amato, but in the final stages the safety car compacted the group and prevented Vezzoni from fending off his rivals. P11 and lead in AM for Cassarà-De Giacomi in the Porsche GT3 R ran by Dinamic Motorsport. They led the sister car driven by Venerosi-Baccani (Ebimotors). AKM Motorsport’s Roda-Spinelli were hit by bad luck and ended foutreenth due to the filure of a suspension after leading the first stint, while Ferrari-Zampieri retired on lap 22 due to a puncture when they were sixth and close to the leading cars.

GT4: As in Mugello, the opener of GT4 Sprint lived on the BMW-Mercedes-Porsche duel. The victory of BMW Team Italia came in the second stint after Riccitelli started in P2 behind poleman Belicchi. The Italian engaged in a good duel with Segù and handed the car over to his co-equiper Guerra in P2. Guerra managed to find hi sway past Vullo, who took over from Belicchi, and kept it all the way to the flag proceeding De Luca’s Mercedes AMG GT4. The new pairing of Nova Race had a great debut in the Italian GT Championship taking P2 ahead of the Porsche Cayman of Gnemmi-Pera (Ebimotors) and the Mercedes of Nova Race driven by Luca Magnoni, who was the first of AM. Piccioli-De Castro came close to the podium in the second Cayman of Ebimotors, that proceeded Vebster-Riva (Centro Porsche Ticino-Cram), the BMW M4 GT4 of Paolo Meloni (W&D) and the Mercedes AMG GT4 ran by Villorba Corse for Belicchi-Vullo, that retired in the closing stages due to a mechanical failure after a contact when lapping a rival car.

GT CUP: The two Ferrari 488 Challenge were the favourite at the eve of the race of GT Cup, but the Porsche 991 4.0 of Vincenzo Sauto and Gianluca Carboni had the best of them. The Duell Motorsport car took the lead in the final stages following the stop due to a puncture of Chiesa-Greco (Easy Race) that led the race up to that point. The second 488 was also hit by bad luck and team SR&R’s Demarchi-Cristoni had to retire early into the race due to a gearbox issue after a good start from Demarchi.

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SAUTO-CARBONI (PORSCHE 991 4.0-DUELL MOTORSPORT)