All is set at the Misano World Circuit for the second round of the Italian GT Championship 2017, race to be held this coming weekend after the great kick off of Imola last month. A total of 33 lineups will get on track for the three racing days by the Adriatico sea to challenge each other in the five classes of the event: Super GT3, GT3, Super GT Cup, GT Cup and GTS.
SUPER GT3: In the highest class, the PRO lineup to be beaten is that made by Mirko Venturi and Stefano Gai (Ferrari 488), that scored a double win in Imola. The Black Bull Swisse Racing drivers will have to serve a 30s time handicap in race-1 and this will certainly inflame the duel for the podium on Saturday. The classification sees Frassineti-Beretta (Lamborghini Huracan-Ombra Racing) chasing the leaders with a 10 points gap. They proceed the two Ferrari 488 of Schirò-Melo (Easy Race) and Malucelli-Cheever (Scuderia Baldini 27), that respectively stand 20 and 21 points from the top. The Lamborghini Huracans driven by Agostini-Zampieri (Antonelli Motorsport) and Leo-Baruch (Petri Corse Motorsport) are all set for the challenge even if they are behind in the classification, as the Audi R8 (Audi Sport Italia) of Treluyer-Ghirelli, that will hunt for a counter-charge after the tough luck in Imola.
The double victory in Imola places Comandini-Cerqui (BMW M6 GT3) as favourites for the Super GT3 classification non PRO. BMW Team Italia’s drivers will have to face the challenge of Valente-Veglia (Lamborghini Huracan-Antonelli Motorsport) and Pezzucchi-Pastorelli (Mercedes AMG GT3-Krypton Motorsport), that closed the two opening races behind the BMW lineup,as well as that of Gentili-Cassarà (Lamborghini Huracan-Ombra Racing) and the Japanese Ishikawa who will be alone at the start of the Ferrari 488 run by AF Corse.
GT3: A new entry joined GT3: the Ferrari 458 Italia run by MP1 Corse for Nicola Benucci, a long time known driver in in the Italian series, and Simone Niboli. They will join the Porsche GT3R (Ebimotors) driven by Venerosi-Baccani that was on the top step of the podium in both Imola races, the sister car driven by La Mazza-Magli (Easy Race) and the Corvette Z06R (Erreci Proracing) of Colaianni-Del Castello.
SUPER GT CUP: The class reserved to the Lamborghini Huracan SuperTrofeo is likely to stage another duel between Vincenzo Sospiri Racing’s Cazzaniga-D’Amico and Tujula-Vainio that are split by one point only on top of the classification. Matteo Desideri (Antonelli Motorsport) will certainly try and repeat the victory scored in Imola’s Race-2 and in the occasion he will share the cockpit with Piero Necchi, at his comeback, but several other crews will have the potential to aim at the victory. Among these, Jia Tong-Ortiz (Vincenzo Sospiri Racing) and Antonelli Motorsport’s Takashi-Basz and Perolini-Sartori. Imperiale Racing’s Benvenuti-Demarchi and Bonacini-Durante are also ready to shine as Trentin-Perullo (Petri Corse Motorsport).
GT CUP: Several new entries joined also the class reserved to cars in single make configuration, thanks to the Porsche 997 of “Togo”. The great protagonist of the past editions of the Italian championship Luigi Ferrara will be back sharing the Ferrari 458 Italia run by CAAL Racing with Leonardo Baccarelli. The entry list of GT Cup will be completed by La Mazza-Nicolosi (Porsche 997-Ebimotors) and Emanuele Pisani (Porsche 997-Siliprandi Racing) who will race alongside co-equiper Walter Palazzo, who is also returning to the chamopionship.
GTS: The entry level class has four new cars: two Porsche Cayman CS and two Ginetta G55. The British cars run by Nova Race will be driven by the provisional classification leader Gianluca Carboni, in Misano with the French co-equiper Philippe Salini, and by the runner up Luca Magnoni, while the Stuttgart’s coupe will be driven by Sabino De Castro (Ebimotors) and Nicola Neri (Kinetic Racing).
THE PROGRAMME: The weekend will start on Friday with free practice, while qualifying will take place on Saturday at 8.50 and 9.30 for classes SGT3 and GT3, while classes SGT Cup-GT Cup and GTS will qualify from local 11.25 to 12.05. The programme of Saturday will continue in the afternoon with the two race-1s at 15.45 (SGT3 and GT3) and at 19.25 (SGTCup-GT Cup and GTS), while race-2s will start on Sunday at 13,50 (SGTCup-GT Cup-GTS) and 15,40 (SGT3-GT3). All races will be run on the length of 48 minutes + 1 lap and will be shown live on Rai Sport (race-1 SGT3-GT3) and AutomotoTV (Race-2 SGT3-GT3 and both races of SGT Cup-GT Cup-GTS), as well as in live streaming at www.acisport.it/CIGT.
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