“Veni, vidi, vici,” the Latin phrase spoken by Roman emperor Julius Caesar – “I came, I saw, I conquered” could be applied to the Kaspersky Motorsport team today, who won the GT3 class and finished a fantastic second overall in the 6 Hours of Vallelunga. The circuit is situated on the outskirts of Rome, which is the home of two of the three Kaspersky Motorsport drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Marco Cioci.
The 6 Hours di Roma is one of the most famous endurance races on the calendar and it brought the curtain down on another season of racing for the Kaspersky Motorsport team. It was a convincing way to end the year and showed great progress for the team. Next year, Giancarlo Fisichella and Marco Cioci will be behind the wheel of the Ferrari 488GT3, meticulously prepared as usual by the AF Corse crew with the team to step up to the PRO category for the 2017 Blancpain Endurance Series, the most prestigious GT competition on the calendar. This being a six hour race, they shared driving duties with our regular “gentleman driver” Alex Moiseev.
Today’s event, held in beautiful sunny weather was only the third outing for the new car and the first long distance race, therefore offering valuable lessons to be learned in light of next year. “The two races prior to this weekend provided us with valuable data, but every race has its own story, so we were interested to see how we would get on today,” said Jacopo Fedele, the team’s chief engineer.
In qualifying on Saturday, the team were expecting a tough session, because the track was slippery and there was always a chance of a yellow flag to interrupt proceedings. But Giancarlo got in a great first run to secure a great start from third on the grid, while Marco came up with some interesting set-up suggestions that worked really well. As for Alex, he was the quickest of the “amateur” drivers in the field. Therefore, the crew lined up for the early morning start in an optimistic mood with Giancarlo in the cockpit for the first stint. “I am very happy with this great result,” he said at the end of the race. “Finishing first in our category is a good performance and to finish second behind a much lighter and quicker LMP3 car is a great achievement. We got involved in a collision that was not our fault and that involved having to make an extra pit stop. Alex did an exceptional job and Marco showed what he is capable of.”
Marco himself was delighted to have made it to the podium: “It has been a very tough season and this podium was a great reward for all our work and an enjoyable way to end the year,” said the Italian. “We expected to be competitive in the race and we were. Giancarlo and Alex did a great job, as did every member of the team in the pits and they really deserve this result.”
The final word goes to Alex Moiseev, who was clearly very proud of what the team had achieved. “First and foremost, this second podium of the year is a great result for Kaspersky Motorsport. Everyone in the team worked very hard for this, giving the three of us a great car today. It was super to be back on the podium, especially when you consider that we have had more than our fair share of bad luck this year. We worked so hard for this, but I’m still finding it hard to believe we got the win.”