Race-2 classification of the opening round of the Italian GT Championship Sprint series has been decided in the stewards' room. After the race Kikko Galbiati and Giovanni Venturini, that crossed the finish line as the first in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3, were handed a 5s time penalty due to the contact with the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Roda-Rovera (AF Corse), that happened when four laps were still to go. Following this decision, Imperiale Racing’s drivers were relegated to P7 and the victory was inherited by Lorenzo Ferrari and Daniel Zampieri in the Mercedes AMG GT3 ran by AKM Motorsport, that led Roda-Rovera (Ferrari 488 GT3-AF Corse) and Audi Sport Italia’s Agostini-Mancinelli (Audi R8 LMS). Segù-De Luca, took the win in GT4 behind the wheel of the Mercedes AMG GT4 of Nova Race leading Gnemmi-Pera (Porsche Cayman-Ebimotors) and Belicchi-Vullo (Mercedes AMG GT4-Villorba Corse), while Chiesa-Greco (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Easy Race) got on the top step of the GT Cup podium leading De Marchi-Cristoni (Ferrari 488 Challenge-SR&R).
GT3: The victory of Galbiati-Venturini obtained by a “hard” overtaking move by Kikko Galbiati on Giorgio Roda when four laps were still to go has been appealed by rivals since the beginning. It looked like Galbiati-Venturini took the win at the end of a race characterized by the safety car that made the last ten minutes like a draw with six drivers fighting for the top step of the podium all in 3s. After the sixth place in race-1, Imperiale Racing’s drivers ran the second race with the needed grit. Venturini engaged a good duel for P4 with Zug, and later on.
The closing stages have been very exciting as Galbiati completed the overtaking move on Roda, but this manoeuvre was later on deemed illegal, and then he fended off the attacks moved from a great champion like Zampieri. The happiness for the first win at Lamborghini did not last long as a 5s time penalty made Imperiale Racing’s lineup slip down to P7.
The 17 years old Lorenzo Ferrari and Daniel Zampieri got the most of this stewards decision and won the race after a great stint from the young Italian that managed to stay close to the top, while Zampieri in the second stint recovered all the way up from P. Due to the penalty given to Galbiati-Venturini the second step of the podium went to Roda-Rovera, as the latter managed to keep P2 in the first stint after being overtaken by teammate Cressoni, while Roda drove a good stint but could not fend off Galbiati’s attack that was judged irregular later on, and that completed by Zampieri.
The third step of the podium went the Agostini-Mancinelli, that were in turn penalized by 15s due to the victory of race-1, but Audi Sport Italia’s drivers have always been close to the front runners and displayed again a great shape leading the provisional classification. Agostini kept P3 in the first stint, while Mancinelli recovered well the time handicap climbing up from P8 and closing his effort ahead of the BMW of Comandini-Zug. The 17 years old German had a good duel for P4 with Venturini, while Comandini managed at best the car that was not perfectly at ease in Misano. Michelotto-Hudspeth (Ferrari 488 GT3-Easy Race) also took advantage of the penalty handed to their rivals and closed their race in P5 as the first of PRO-AM despite an early contact with the Lamborghini of Tujula that saw the Finn and the Japanese Nemoto retiring. The driver from Singapore and the 17 years old Italian completed a good comeback race showing their good potential at the end of a weekend that gave them the confidence to be close to the top drivers.
The sixth-place went to Di Amato-Vezzoni that were also penalized due to an irregularity at the drivers' change. This was a pity for RS Racing’s drivers as the driver from Rome put in a very strong performance in the finale recovering from P9 and the podium was at their reach. In the revised classification RS Racing’s drivers proceeded Galbiati-Venturini and Mann-Cressoni, that also put in a good performance as the driver from Lombardy has always been on top. In the second stint the little experience of the young American driver cost them some positions, but the performance of the 19 years old driver of AF Corse has been positive nevertheless.
Cassarà-De Giacomi (Porsche GT3R-Dinamic Motorsport) were ninth and first of AM leading the sister car driven by Venerosi-Baccani (Ebimotors) that rounded off the top ten.
Roda-Spinelli (Mercedes AMG GT3-AKM Motorsport) had to retire due to a technical problem when six laps were remaining, while Cazzaniga-Marcucci (Lamborghini Huracan-LP Racing) had an incident when holding P8. Kroes-Pulcini (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) spun off at the restart after the safety car in what was a difficult performance for the VSR drivers.
.jpg)
GT4: Segù-De Luca claimed a good win and the lead of the GT4 classification. This rewards the great work done by Nova Race that fielded three cars in the Sprint Series. De Luca recovered two places in the first stint keeping P3 behind Pera and Guerra, while in the second stint Segù got the most of the retirement due to technical issues of the BMW M4 GT4 driven by Riccitelli, taking P2 behind the leader Gnemmi, who took over from Pera. Segù completed the successful overtaking move for the lead on lap 22. The Nova Race driver kept the lead all the way to the flag afterwards, leading Ebimotors driver. A great Pera managed the race very well in the first stint, as Gnemmi had a positive performance contributing to scoring the first championship points for the team. The podium was rounded off by another Mercedes AMG GT4, that of Belicchi-Vullo (Villorba Corse) thanks to the bold performance of the driver from Parma that recovered several positions. The pairing ended the race leading Piccioli-De Castro (Porsche Cayman-Ebimotors) and Paolo Meloni (BMW M4 GT4). The driver from San Marino was among the front runners early on and crossed the finish line in P5 leading the Porsche Cayman of Arrigosi-Pan (Centro Porsche Ticino-Cram) and the Mercedes AMG GT4 of Luca Magnoni, who won AM, the Porsche Cayman of Vebster-Riva and the Mercedes AMG GT4 of Carlo Mantori. BMW Team Italia’s Guerra-Riccitelli won race-1 but then the failure of an axle-shaft made them retire from the race from P2.
.jpg)
GT CUP: After the victory of the Porsche driven by Sauto-Carboni in race-1, the Ferrari 488 Challenge of Chiesa-Greco won GT Cup’s race two. The race was decided at the beginning of the second stint after Carboni led the race through the first stint. The Italian found his way past the poleman Chiesa taking the lead early on and handing the car over to Sauto on top. The driver from Sicily was hit by Marcucci, who did not see him causing the retirement and preventing them to repeat the great result scored in race-1. The retirement of Duell Race allowed Chiesa and Greco to take the lead. The two ended the race on top leading the 488 of Demarchi-Cristoni (SR&R) and taking the lead of the provisional classification.
On Twitter
@CIGranTurismo
@GTavoni
www.acisport.it/CIGT
www.facebook.com/CIGranTurismo
