Kikko Galbiati and Matteo Cressoni, Mercedes AMG GT3, won Imola’s race-2 in the third round of the Italian GT Sprint Championship. The Antonelli Motorsport’s pairing led Guidetti-Moncini (Honda NSX GT3-Nova Race) by 1.294s and Di Amato-Urcera (Ferrari 488 GT3-Scuderia Baldini) by 2.355s. Guidetti and Moncini took the lead in the classification at 69 points, Di Amato and Urcera (64) are second and lead Glock and Klingmann (63), Galbiati (61), Di Folco (55), Gai and Panciatici (49).
The first two Italian 2022 titles have been awarded in Imola: that of GT3 PRO-AM, which has been won by Cecotto-Di Giusto (Lamborghini Huracan GT3-LP Racing), that were second at the flag behind Pesce-Rappange (Mercedes AMG GT3-Antonelli Motorsport), and that of GT3 AM that was won by Butti-Patrinicola (Audi R8 LMS-Audi sport Italia), that won the race. In the other classes, Postiglione-Donno (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Best Lap) won GT Cup PRO-AM, Rodrigo Testa (Lamborghini Huracan GT3-FFF Racing Team) GT Cup AM and Di Fabio-Schjerpen (Mercedes AMG GT4-Nova Race) GT4.
SPRINT GT3 PRO-AM CLASSIFICATION
GT CUP PRO-AM CLASSIFICATION
GT3: It has been a very hard-fought race that reopened the title fight to six crews and rewarded the Antonelli Motorsport’s drivers at the flag, especially Kikko Galbiati. The young Italian driver, who took over from Matteo Cressoni, climbed up to P3 in the second stint and took the lead during the last lap after a long duel with Leonardo Moncini. The young driver from Brescia did not manage to handle very well the lapping of several drivers in the hectic closing stages and had to concede the lead that he gained a the drivers’ change after the first stint run by his coequiper Guidetti.
The 15 points earned with P2 allowed nevertheless Nova Race’s drivers to get to Mugello as the classification leaders with a 5 points margin on Di Amato-Urcera, which were third at the flag. The Scuderia Baldini’s pairing managed well the first part of the race with the driver from Rome, while his Argentine coequiper gained P3 in the second one as he led Middleton (Lamborghini Huracan GT3-Imperiale Racing). The British driver (and coequiper Di Folco), had to serve the handicap time due to the victory in race-1 ending close to the podium. The driver from Rome is still in the title fight despite the 14 points gap to the top.
Among the other pairings still in the title fight, Panciatici-Gai (Ferrari 488 GT3-Scuderia Baldini) were fifth in this race and led Guerra-Greco (Honda NSX GT3-Nova Race) and Glock-Klingmann (BMW M4 GT3). The BMW Italia-Ceccato Racing Team’s pairing started from the pole position with Glock, but had to serve 20s at the pit stop and Klingmann was then slowed down by a lapped rival in the closing stages and ended seventh leading Pesce-Rappange, that were the first of GT3 PRO-AM, and Butti-Patrinicola (Audi R8 LMS-Audi Sport Italia), that won GT3 AM and the Italian title. Despite an unscheduled pit stop to change a punctured tyre, Cecotto-Di Giusto ended the race and the LP Racing’s drivers celebrated the GT3 PRO-AM title two races early.
GT CUP/GT4: As happened in race-1, the second race has been fascinating with a lot of duels from the beginning. In a hectic second lap, the race was neutralized by an FCY for several laps. The safety car was later on deployed following a spectacular incident that involved the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup driven by Pierluigi Alessandri (EF Racing), who did not have physical consequences when the car rolled over several times after contact with a rival.
The victory of GT Cup PRO-AM went to Postiglione-Donno after two perfect stints of the Best Lap drivers. Donno kept the slipstream of Riccardo Pera (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup-Ebimotors) in the first stint, while Postiglione took the lead on lap 13 despite the handicap time served at the pit stop, and ended the race ahead of Mac-Kirchmayer (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Baron Motorsport) and Berton-Mainetti (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup-Krypton Motorsport). The provisional classification lead is still in the hands of Coluccio-Mazzola (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Easy Race) that totalled 73 points as they ended seventh after starting from the penultimate row of the grid. They handed behind Barri-Scalvini (Lamborghini Huracan ST-Team Italy), which are only 10 points short of the provisional leaders
Gianluigi Piccioli is only six points shy of the lead and will fight for the win in Mugello. In Imola and coequiper Riccardo Pera were eighth, while Alessandro Mainetti has a gap to the top of 15 points. Great performances were put in by the two Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Levorato-Piria (Tsunami RT) and Giardelli-Gaiofatto (Ebimotors), which ended respectively fourth and fifth.
In GT Cup AM, the 16 years old from Portugal Rodrigo Testa claimed another win after that in race-1. The FFF Racing’s driver completed a good recovery and closed his effort ahead of the American Clarke (Ferrari 488 Challenge-Pellin Racing) and Di Leo-Poppy (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup-AB Motorsport), that are the new provisional classification leaders as they totalled 2 points more than Tazio Pieri (Porsche 991 GT3 Cup-Krypton Motorsport), who retired early on due to an incident. Ruiz Castillo (Lamborghini Huracan-Team Italy) ended close to the podium leading the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Pichler-Ghezzi (Autorlando) and Bronzini-Tabacchi (EF Racing), which are now third in the standings with a 10 points gap to the lead.
Di Fabio-Schjerpen (Mercedes AMG GT4-Nova Race) secured the second victory in GT4 leading teammates Bencivenni-Ferri and Autorlando’s Cerati-Locatelli (Porsche Cayman). The Norwegian driver Aleksander Schjerpen is alone in the lead and enjoys a 10 points advantage on Filippo Bencivenni and Fulvio Ferri.
On Twitter
@CIGranTurismo
@GTavoni
www.acisport.it/CIGT
www.facebook.com/CIGranTurismo
www.instagram.com/cigranturismo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-QsHUuslO4iZekAeBoskgg/featured
