Miguel Ramos and Nicky Pastorelli took their third success of the year in today’s Race 1 at Silverstone. In an unusually hot afternoon, the V8 Racing duo imposed their Corvette on the Villorba Corse Ferrari of Andrea Montermini-Luca Filippi, which dominated the first half of the race but paid the 15″ extra handicap during the pit stop. The two teams confirm their status of main title contenders. The Dutch Corvettes rounded up a perfect day with the third place of Diederik Sijthoff-Bert Longin.
The BhaiTech McLarens put the show in the GTS class, with Giorgio Pantano and Rafael Suzuki beating team mates Chris van der Drift-Luiz Razia, in what is the third success of the season for the Anglo-Italian team. Third spot was for the AF Corse Ferrari of Matteo Beretta and local hero Michael Lyons.
It was a quiet start, with positions reflecting the grid positions, with Montermini flying away ahead of Ramos, Sijthoff, Van der Drift, Pantano, Lyons, Mavlanov, Barba and Simpson. Tutumlu is out of the race in lap 1 with a smoking Porsche, followed soon after by the Lambo of Hamprecht who has had a contact.
While Monermini takes a 1″5 lead on Ramos, Seefried is chasing Sijthoff for third, while on fifth, Van Der Drift has more and more trouble in keeping at bay a group composed of Pantano, Lyons, the Ginetta, Barba and Mavlanov.
In lap 8, Pantano eventually managed to pass team mate Van der Drift. There are spins from Maleev and also Cordoni after contact with Plachutta, while also Heyer retires. In lap 14, Montermini arrives to pits for driver change with a 10-second advantage.
After the pit stops, the two Corvettes of Longin and Pastorelli, with the Dutchman passing the Belgian on lap 21, then Filippi 4 seconds behind, Suzuki, Razia, De Marco, Beretta, Griffin, Costantini, Kogay, Rosell and Magnussen. Toril stops with a mute Seyffarth Mercedes and also Barba retires while Talkanitsa has to pit with an exploded tire.
In lap 24, Filippi passes Longin for second after a short fierce duel, while Griffin climbs up positions and is 5th in lap 19. De Marco punctures a tire and loses many positions. In the final laps, Filippi closes on Pastorelli but the Dutchman is in control of the situation and wins without problem, ahead of Filippi, Longin and Griffin. In GTS, the Bhai Tech McLarens beat Beretta, Magnussen, Bleekemolen, Rosell and Kogay.
Wins in the Gentlemen’s Trophy for Danny Werkman in SuperGT and Johnny Laursen in GTS.
Source : International GT Open