Mugello, Mancinelli-Postiglione (Audi R8 LMS) win race-1 of the 4th and closing round of the Italian GT Championship

The victory of the Audi Sport's drivers came after the 5s penalty handed to Frassineti-Ghiotto after the race, as the pairing crossed the finish line on top. With one race to go Imperiale Racing's pairing are nine points short of classification leaders Ferrari-Agostini.
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Daniel Mancinelli and Vito Postiglione (Audi R8 LMS) won race-1 at the 4th and closing round of the Italian GT Sprint Championship held at the Mugello Circuit. The victory of the Audi Sport Italia’s team arrived after the 5s time penalty due to irregular start after the safety car neutralization handed to Frassineti-Ghiotto that crossed the finish line on top. Imperiale Racing’s drivers were therefore pushed down to P2 ahead of S.Mann-Cressoni (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-AF Corse), which were the first of GT3 PRO-AM, and 9 points shy of the leaders Ferrari-Agostini (Audi R8 LMS). The victory in GT3 AM went to Schirò-Earle (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-Kessel Racing), that of GT4 to Di Giusto-Pera (Porsche Cayman-Ebimotors) while Luca Magnoni and Diego Di Fabio (Mercedes AMG GT4-Nova Race) clinched the GT4 AM title. The top step of the podium of GT Cup went to Linossi-Vebster (Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo-Easy Race), that confirmed to be the classification leaders. Race-2 is scheduled for tomorrow at 12.40 with live TV coverage on ACISPORT TV (SKY 228). The closing round of the season will decide the winners of the overall title, and those of GT3 PRO-AM, GT3 AM and GT CUP. Fans have the chance to access the main grandstand by purchasing the entrance tickets (Full price € 15, Reduced price € 10), while under 12 fans are freely admitted but need to be accompanied by an adult.

RACE-1 CLASSIFICATION

GT3: It has not been an easy race. The fight during lap one saw four cars being involved in an incident and the race was red-flagged and stopped for half an hour. The safety car neutralized the race in the closing stages too. Imperiale Racing’s pairing led the race throughout thanks to the start from the pole position of Frassineti and a second stint by Ghiotto that managed to fend off the attacks of Vito Postiglione (Audi R8 LMS). The Italian driver and his co-equiper Daniel Mancinelli, run their best race of the season and tried to steal some points from the rivals of their teammates Ferrari-Agostini. The latter had to serve the 25s time handicap after the first stint in P4, which made them slip down to the back despite Agostini recovered several places in the closing races ending sixth. The cold shower for the race-winners Frassineti-Ghiotto arrived at the end of the race when they were handed a 5s time penalty due to irregular start after the safety car and were relegated to P2 and handing Mancinelli-Postiglione their first win of the season.

The podium of the penultimate round of the season was rounded off by Mann-Cressoni, which allowed the young Simon to take the lead of GT3 PRO-AM with 2 points of margin on Cecotto-Perolini (Lamborghini Huracan-LP Racing), that are third in the category behind Guidetti-De Luca (Honda NSX GT3-Nova Race), which were seventh overall.

Comandini-Zug (BMW M6 GT3-Ceccato Racing) ended close to the podium as they led Basz-Greco (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-Easy Race). The driver from Piedmont can still aim to the title despite the 13 points gap to the Audi drivers. The top ten was rounded off by Schreiner-Hudspeth (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-AF Corse) and Schirò-Earle (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-Kessel Racing), a result that allows the driver from Veneto to stay in the fight for the AM title. The Turkish driver Cuhadaroglu (Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo-Kessel Racing) is still leading the classification despite the incident at the start of the race. He still has two points margin on Erwin Zanotti (Honda NSX GT3-Nova Race) and ten on Schirò.

GT4: The GT4 PRO-AM title has been already awarded to Mattia Di Giusto (Porsche Cayman-Ebimotors) in Imola. In Mugello, Luca Magnoni and Diego Di Fabio were crowned GT4 AM champions. They ended second behind Neri-Fascicolo (BMW M4 GT4-Ceccato Racing) and led the two Porsche Cayman of Autorlando driven by Cerati-Ghezzi and Baruchelli-Fratti. Pera-Di Giusto claimed the seventh win in GT4 PRO-AM as they were uncatchable after the great start by the driver from Tuscany and the regular second stint by his co-equiper. They led Ferri-Bettera (Mercedes AMG GT4-Nova Race) and teammates Romani-Carboni.

GT CUP: Francesca Linossi and Daniel Vebster claimed an important win for the title hunt. The Easy Race pairing was leading the classification equal on points with Demarchi-Risitano (Ferrari 488 Challenge-SR&R) and one point clear of Mugelli-Pegoraro (Lamborghini Huracan-Best Lap), but now thanks to the 20 points earned and a race one that did not favour the rivals, Linossi-Vebster can face the last round of the season with higher confidence. They have now 14 points more than Demarchi-Risitano, that were seventh at the flag. The Easy Race drivers took the lead on lap eight when Barri (Lamborghini Huracan ST-Team Italy), who was leading since the start, was forced to pit due to the failure of the brakes and to leave the lead to the Swede. In the second stint Linossi did not have problems keeping the lead and crossed the finish line ahead of the Dane Brunsborg (Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo-AF Corse) and Giammarco Levorato (Porsche 991 4.0-Tsunami RT), that were both driving double shifts and at the debut in the Italian series. Another 488 Challenge ended close to the podium, that of Sartingen-Lopez (RS Racing), who proceeded the two 991 4.0 of Carlo and Lino Curti (Tsunami RT) and Riva-Berton (Krypton Motorsport). The latter were followed by Demarchi-Risitano, that slipped down to P7 after a penalty due to the irregular change. Mugelli-Pegoraro had bad luck and went off on lap one and are now third in the classification 15 points clear of the lead.

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LINOSSI-VEBSTER (FERRARI 488 CHALLENGE-EASY RACE)