Behind the wheel of the Ferrari 458, the race drivers Montermini and Lopez were great sportsmen in both the qualifying and in race-1 of the fourth round of the GT Open. The fast Italian driver dominated the morning session and the first part of the race but with the arrival of heavy rain he was forced to recover, while the young Argentine completed the job finishing in third place. Tomorrow’s race-2 will be broadcasted live at 13:15 pm in Italy by RaiSport 2 and Primocanale
Brands Hatch (Great Britain), July 14, 2012. In the rain of Brands Hatch the aabar Abu Dhabi Villorba racing with Ferrari Team clinched third place and valuable points for the standings in race-1 of the fourth round of the International GT Open. The race drivers Andrea Montermini and Juan Manuel Lopez were great behind the wheel of the powerful Ferrari 458 of Super GT class and perfectly tuned by the Italian squad of Raimondo Amadio.
The race started on a wet track, but in the morning Montermini set a fabulous pole position in a dry qualifying. The former F.1 driver took the lead from the front row and dominated the race until lap 12, until rain started to pick up making Montermini suffered a problem by an unexpected puddle between turns 3 and 4 losing about twenty seconds and dropping in fourth position but managing to keep his 458 on track.
At the mid-race mandatory pit-stop for the driver change the Ferrari of the aabar Abu Dhabi Villorba had to pay an additional handicap of five seconds and Lopez was back on track in tenth place. The young Argentine recovered and in the final laps he caught up. With a great overtake Lopez was able to clinch the third place and celebrate with his teammates a very important podium at this crucial point of the season.
“A podium is always a good result – said Raimondo Amadio, Team Principal – and today our 458 has shown a great potential. Now we must concentrate on tomorrow’s race because, at least, we have to aim to another podium. In the grid we are the first Ferrari of Super GT class: above all if it does not rain we will try to make the most of this situation even if we will have to pay ten seconds more during the driver change”
Tomorrow, Sunday, July 15th, race-2 will start at 12:15, live on RaiSport 2 and Primocanale at 13:15.
Source : Villorba Corse