The 20th edition of the Italian GT Championship will get underway tomorrow from the circuit of Monza as the Sprint series will run its opener, while the Endurance series will begin in mid-may at the Sicilian circuit of Pergusa. A total of 41 cars will be present in Monza in the categories GT3, GT Cup and GT4.
GT3: Audi Sport Italia will get to the start ready to defend the title claimed last year. The R8 LMS will be driven by the young Butti-Patrinicola and will have the #1 on the sides. The BMW Italia-Ceccato Racing Team will challenge them with the debut of the brand new BMW M4 GT3 driven by the works drivers Timo Glock and Jens Klingmann.
Five Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo entered the challenge: one fielded by Easy Race for the reigning champion Riccardo Agostini, who will share driving duties with the Swede winner of the GT Cup 2021 title Daniel Vebster, two by Scuderia Baldini for Di Amato-Urcera and Gai-Panciatici and two more by AF Corse for Alessandro Cozzi and Negro-Han.
Three are the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo instead. Two have been entered by Imperiale Racing for Di Folco-Middleton and Paul August, and one by LP Racing for Cecotto-Di Giusto. The Honda NSX GT3 Evo lot increased by one unit compared to last year; Nova Race will field in fact Moncini-Guidetti, Guerra-Greco and Magnoni-Lippi, while Antonelli Motorsport will line up two Mercedes AMG GT3 for Cressoni-Galbiati and Pesce-Rappange.
GT CUP/GT4: After the relaunch of the past season, this is going to be a record edition for GT Cup. The class reserved for the cars in single-make configuration will see 23 cars at the start among Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche. The latter will count eleven 991 GT3 Cup Gen II, three of which are fielded by Krypton Motorsport for Gattuso-Mainetti, Locanto-Costacurta and Tazio Pieri. Two German coupes will be managed by Ebimotors for Amaduzzi-Jeffrey and Pera-Piccioli, two by Tsunami RT for the reigning champion Francesca Linossi, who will share the car with Vicky Piria, and for Berton-Bontempelli. The two EF Racing’s Porsche cars will be driven by Baruchelli-Alessandri and Bronzini-Tabacchi, while Autorlando will field Ghezzi-Pichler and AB Motorsport Di Leo-Poppy.
Bonaldi Motorsport will field three Lamborghini Huracan ST Evo for Andres Mendez, Kodric-Vairani and Pavlovic-Fishbaum, while Team Italy will give their Huracans to Attianese-Castillo and Barri-Scalvini. Antonelli Motorsport and FFF Racing Team will compete with one Lambo each. These will be respectively driven by Carboni-Pegoraro and Luciano Privitelio.
Five Ferrari entered the competitio. The 488 Challenge Evo fielded by Best Lap will be driven by Marzialetti-Tibaldo and Pitorri-Simonelli, Easy Race’s by Coluccio-Mazzola and SR&R’s by Berton-Buttarelli that will be sided by a 458 Challenge driven by Rocchi-Salerno.
Three cars will compete in GT4: two Mercedes AMG GT4 run by Nova Race for Marchetti-Schjerpen and Bencivenni-Ferri and a Porsche Cayman of Autorlando for Cerati-Fondi.
PROGRAM AND TV COVERAGE: The first racing weekend of the 2022 season will kick off on Friday with two free practice sessions (at local 11.55 and 17.00). The two qualifying sessions will be on Saturday morning (at 10.55 and 11.45). Race-1 (50minutes + 1 lap) will begin in the afternoon (at 18.05), while race-2 (50 minutes + 1 lap) will be on Sunday at 15.15. The TV coverage will include the live broadcasting of the two races on Raisport (FreeView 57 and 58) and ACISPORT TV (SKY 228). The live streaming coverages will also be available from www.acisport.it/CIGT, Facebook www.facebook.com/CIGranTurismo and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyhhEkzyTlUbzYCjBUMUDtQ.
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