The penultimate round of the 2016 International GT Open at Autodromo Nazionale Monza yielded a superb race win for TF Sport’s Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey (1-2 October).
A brilliant pole position was sealed by rinsing every drop of performance from the #34 Aston Martin and achieving a time of 1m47.027s that was merely five thousandths of a second quicker than the ever-potent Teo Martin BMWs of Gustavo Yacamán and Pieter Schothorst.
However, stellar drives from both Hankey and Am teammate Yoluc ensured pole was translated into a second International GT Open victory of 2016, although the Anglo-Turkish pairing had to work for the win with the Orange1 Team Lazarus Lamborghini Huracan of Fabrizio Crestani and Thomas Biagi looming large in the mirrors in the dying embers of the race.
Hankey took the start and kept the initiative on the long charge towards the first pinch point at the Rettifilo chicane and the pressure quickly subsided as the BMWs brawled and Hankey pushed on to build a comfortable advantage prior to the driver-change.
Yoluc enjoyed a 20-second buffer over Crestani when he emerged from the Monza pit lane, but a furious charge from the Lamborghini driver saw the gap diminish rapidly and it was a calm and concerted defence from TF Sport’s Turkish Am that cemented the win.
Unfortunately, the British team wouldn’t fare so well in race two on Sunday (2 October), as the blue Aston Martin would grind to a halt with gearbox issues half a dozen laps in.
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “It’s nice to get back to winning ways with Salih (Yoluc) and Euan (Hankey) for the first time since Silverstone, as they’ve been close on a few occasions. We were strong in both free practice sessions with both drivers, Euan then put the car on pole position in qualifying and drove a very good stint in the first race. We lost a bit of time in the stops, but Salih did well to fend off one of the Lamborghinis driven by a Pro on a tense final lap!
“Second qualifying started on a wet track, but Salih pulled out a great lap to qualify seventh among Pro competition. He performed remarkably to stay inside the top seven and he wasn’t really losing any ground when we were struck down by a catastrophic gearbox failure; we have a big hole in the gearbox and we need to investigate and cure the problem in the short window we have between now and the trip to the final round of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup in Estoril. Ultimately, we want a strong ending to the International GT Open in Barcelona, as we’re bidding for third in the standings.”