Andrea Montermini and Cochito López gave the aabar Villorba Ferrari its second win of the year in a lively and beautiful Race 2 under the sun at the Paul Ricard. The pair beat the Manthey Porsche of Nick-Tandy-Marco Holzer, now back as championship leaders jointly with Malucelli-Barba (Villois Aston), today 5th, and the AF Corse Ferrari of Federico Leo-Gimmi Bruni. Still, the win of the Villorba car remains sub-judice, as after the race it got a 30″ penalty for a race incident with Ramos. The team has appealed, therefore the sanction is suspended until the appeal is examined by the local (French) sporting authority.
In GTS, Matteo Beretta-Marcello Puglisi, deprived of their win yesterday evening, took their revenge with their Autorlando Sport Porsche, beating the excellent Ombra Racing Ferrari of Lorenzo-Bontempelli-Mario Cordoni and the Reiter Lamborghini of Peter Kox-Nico Pronk.
At the start, poleman Barba takes the lead ahead of Giammaria, Mapelli, Leo, Kox, Lopez, Tandy, Talakanitsa, Broniszewski and Puglisi. There is big fight at all stages, with Zampieri spinning in lap 1, Barba and Broniszewski re-interpretating the chicanes and Narac stopping in lap 3 with a broken rear left wheel. Mapelli will also stop with a puncture (lap 10) which puts Leo in third, but under the attacks of Kox.
After the pit stop, it is Ramos leading ahead of Holzer and Montermini. The three are in full fight but in lap 13, Montermini touches the Corvette at the Beausset corner, sending it into a spin. The Villorba is still in the lead (but under investigation) with Holzer right behind, while Peter is third in fight with Bruni, then Talkanitsa, Malucelli and Ramos. In GTS, Pronk leads with the Lambo but Beretta and Bontempelli are catching on him.
In lap 18, Malucelli takes fifth from Talkanitsa, while Beretta passes Pronk on top of GTS. There is a sanction of 1 lap for Dalle Stelle for an infraction during the handicap, while Bruni passes Peter for third and Bontempelli takes second in GTS from Pronk.
Note regarding Race 1
The stewards also took a number of decisions after Race 1 which apply to yesterday’s winners. The winning Villois Aston Martin was disqualified as an engineer started to download data from the car when it was still in parc fermé. Villois Racing appealed the decision, hence the race results and the standing points are suspended (not changing) until the relevant court (in this case, the FFSA’s) will examine the appeal.
The two Autorlando Porsches, winners of the GTS race, were also disqualified because of the size of anti-noise shields mounted around the exhausts. The team did not appeal and therefore lost yesterday’s results and points but keeps yesterday’s handicaps.
Championship Standings after Race 10 of 16 Scratch: 1.Barba-Malucelli, Holzer-Tandy, 120; 3. Leo-Bruni, 113; 4. Montermini-Lopez, 99; 5. Pilet-Narac, 92; 6.
Peter-Broniszewski, 85
GTS: 1. Dalle Stelle-Zampieri, 58; 2. Hamilton-Mapelli, Bizzarri, 50; 4. Rizzoli, 32; 5. Christodoulou-Hummel, 24
Teams SGT: 1. Manthey Racing, 53; 2. Villois Racing, 52; 3. AF Corse, 50; 4. Villorba Corse, 44; 5. IMSA Performance, 38
Team GTS: 1. Kessel Racing, 78; 2. Autorlando Sport, 69; 3. AF Corse, 60; 4. Lapidus Racing, 24; 5. Seyffarth Racing, 20
Manufacturers SGT: 1. Ferrari, 123; 2. Porsche, 88; 3. Aston Martin, 52; 4. Chevrolet, 24 Manufacturers GTS: 1. Ferrari, 128; 2. Porsche, 82; 3. McLaren, 24; 4. Mercedes, 20; 5. Lamborghini, 18.
Source : International GT Open