Stefano Comandini and Jesse Krohn (BMW M6 GT3) won race-1 at Mugello’s 4th round of the Italian Grand Touring Championship. The race ended behind the safety car and BMW Team Padova’s pairing proceeded the Lamborghini Huracan of Venturini-Postiglione (Imperiale Racing) by 0.449s and the Ferrari 488 of Mancinelli-Fontana (Easy Race) by 1.989s. The Ferrari 488 driven by Fisichella-Gai (Scuderia Baldini 27) was only fourth, as the two drivers were penalized with a drive-through following a contact with the Audi R8 LMS, while Larini-Caffi ended the debut race of the Bentley Continental GT3 in ninth place. The victory in the other categories went to Cenedese-Galbiati (Super GT Cup) and Pisani-Sauto (GT Cup). The provisional classification of GT3 is led by Zampieri and Altoè at 81 points. They are followed by Gai (75), Baruch (74), Mancinelli and Fontana (70).
Race-2 is scheduled for tomorrow from 16 and will go live on AutomotoTV (Sky 228) and will be shown recorded by Raisport at 20.50. The Facebook page of the championship will house the live streaming feed as the website www.acisport.it/CIGT.
Race-1: The maiden victory of the season of the BMW M6 GT3 arrived in Mugello, on a circuit that has always seen the coupe from Munich as the protagonist in the past few seasons. In race-1 the color bearers of BMW Team Padova have been the real protagonists, with a stunning Jesse Krohn displaying a remarkable supremacy in the first stint. Started from the pole position, the 27 years old BMW factory driver put in several very fast laps pulling away from his rivals Postiglione, Altoè, Fontana and Baruch, handing the car over to Comandini with a gap of more than 7s to the second. The driver from Rome managed the car even though Venturini, who took over from Postiglione, managed to close the gap to less than two seconds in the closing stages. The safety car deployment due to an incident neutralized the race all the way to the flag and handed the top step of the podium to BMW, as Imperiale Racing’s pairing followed in their maiden race in the Italian GT Championship 2018.
The third step of the podium went to Mancinelli-Fontana, that have managed the race well despite the 15s time penalty served at the pit stop and closed ahead of Fisichella-Gai. The Scuderia Baldini 27 pairing was handed a drive-through following a contact between former Formula 1 driver and Barauch that were fighting for P5 during the first stint. The latter had an excursion on the gravel trap.
The fifth position went to provisional classification leaders Zampieri-Altoè. The very young Italian driver managed to keep a great third position in the first stint, while his coequiper managed well the car in the second stint keeping an eye to the classification and thinking about tomorrow’s race. Antonelli Motorsport’s pairing led Audi Sport Italia’s Baruch-Fassler, that saw their race being compromised by an early contact with Fisichella, Liang-Giammaria (Lamborghini Huracan-Imperiale Racing) and Palma-Barri. The Petri Corse Motorsport drivers could get a lot more and the third step of the podium was within their reach, but the melee of the initial stages prevented them to score another strong result after the victory claimed at Paul Ricard. Following a good first stint put in by Barri, Palma defended P3 for a long time, before conceding it due to a contact by Veglia, who eventually spun off and forced race direction to deploy the safety car.
Larini-Caffi were only ninth in the debut of the Bently Continental GT3 run by Petri Corse Motorsport. They started from the last row of the grid due to some technical problems in qualifying and ended their race ahead of Piccioli-De Castro (Lamborghini Huracan-Ebimotors).
Big duels at Antonelli Motorsport inflamed Super GT Cup. Perolini-Valente eventually crossed the finish line on top but were handed a 10s time penalty after the race due to a contact between Perolini and Cenedese. The victory was therefore inherited by the young Italian and co-equiper Kikko Galbiati, who also completed a great first stint always on top. The victory of GT Cup went to Pisani-Sauto, on Porsche 991 run by Duell Motorsport-TFT Team, but the single make class saw the leader Mimmo Guagliardo, who took over from Davide Di Benedetto (Island Motorsport) going off due to a contact with Giammaria, which allowed La Mazza-Nicolosi (Ebimotors) to get on the second step of the podium.
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