The circuit of Vallelunga will house this coming weekend the Italian GT Championship after the summer break. The fifth round of the season will kick off the final part of the 2018 campaign, that will include, after the round near Rome, the exits to Mugello and Monza in October. All classifications are still open, particularly GT3, and several drivers are still in the title fight.
The highest class will feature to interesting debuts in Vallelunga: namely those of Antonio Fuoco and Mattia Drudi. The 22 years old Ferrari Driver Academy driver will be at his debut on GT cars after the success on formula cars. His maiden GT race will be behind the wheel of the 488 run by Scuderia Baldini 27 with Eddie Cheever III as co-equiper, as the 2016 Italian GT3 Champion on the 458 Italia of the team from Rome will be at his comeback.
Mattia Drudi will also make his debut in the Italian GT, but the 20 years old driver already is a certainty in the world of closed wheel racing that saw him emerge in the past couple of years. He will be at the start of the 5th round of the season on the R8 LMS run by Audi Sport Italia trying to help co-equiper Bar Baruch to secure the GT3 title.
The Israeli driver is currently second in the championship, just nine points shy of classification leader Stefano Gai, who will be on Scuderia Baldini’s Ferrari 488 alongside Giancarlo Fisichella. The third place of the classification is currently occupied by Daniel Zampieri and Giacomo Altoè (Lamborghini Huracan-Antonelli Motorsport) that are 14 points adrift. The list of title contenders includes also Daniel Mancinelli and Andrea Fontana (Ferrari 488-Easy Race) that are 23 points short of the top.
Another debut will take place at BMW too. The 20 years old Dutch Max Koebolt will in fact share driving duties with Stefano Comandini on the M6 GT3 run by BMW Team Italia, while two Lamborghini Huracans will be fielded by Imperiale Racing for Jiatong-Giammaria and by Antonelli Motorsport for Vedel-Veglia. Another debut will take place at Composit Motorsport, that will line up a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 for Maurizio Ceresoli and Tanaka Satoshi.
GT Cup classification is also open as three drivers currently are equal on points on top. A good duel from lights to flag will certainly involve Davide Di Benedetto, alone on the Island Motorsport’s Porsche 991, and the pairing Eugenio Pisani - Vincenzo Sauto (Porsche 997-Siliprandi Racing), but Ebimotors’ La Mazza-Nicolosi will also try to slide in the fight on the Porsche 991.
The program: The fifth weekend of the season will begin on Friday with two free practice sessions and will continue on Saturday with two qualifying sessions (from 9,40 to 10,40). Race-1 will start on Saturday at 14,00, while Race-2 will be on Sunday at 14 (both races will last 56 minutes + 1 lap). The two races will be broadcast live on Rai Sport, on the Facebook page of the championship, while the live streaming will be available at www.acisport.it/CIGT.
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