Ferrari battled back for second place overall in the eventful Indianapolis 8 Hours presented by AWS on Saturday, when the third round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge was held simultaneously with the final round of the GT World Challenge America 2022 series.
The Prancing Horse brand occupied top positions all the way to the checkered flag, taking second place with the No. 71 488 GT3 Evo 2020, driven by Daniel Serra, Antonio Fuoco and Ulysse De Pauw. While AF-Corse Francorchamps teammates Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina and Pierre Ragues in the No. 51 car finished fifth.
Intercontinental GT Challenge. AF Corse led the charge despite a mishap in qualifying on Friday that saw both the No. 71 and No. 51 start from near the back of the pack. But while the No. 51 saw limited progress in the opening hour, the No. 71 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, driven by Daniel Serra, surge to the front over the opening hour of the 8-hour contest.
In the first four hours the number 71 held the lead, accumulating a substantial advantage, until a contact with the number 51 Ferrari in an overtaking phase forced the crew of Serra-Fuoco-De Pauw into a drive-through, which still managed to make up ground in the second half of the race. With two hours to go before the checkered flag, the Calabrian driver returned to lead the race, but in the finale the challenge with the Mercedes of Marciello-Juncadella-Morad saw the latter pass first at the checkered flag. “We tried and we drove our best but it was not enough” Fuoco said. “They were a bit faster than us today. We’re quite happy with our position, but we wanted a bit more. We tried everything today”.
GT World Challenge America. Of the six Ferraris entered in the Indianapolis 8 Hours, four were engaged for the purpose of the GT World Challenge America series standings.
In the Pro class, the first car from the House of Maranello to cross the finish line was the number 34 of Conquest Racing, sixth at the finish, with Alessandro Balzan, Daniel Mancinelli and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli starting from the front row, in a race conditioned by some problems with the Abs system. In the same category, the No. 218 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Andretti Autosport and Vital Speed Motorsports, which had Jeff Westphal, Jarett Andretti and Ryan Briscoe behind the wheel, finished eighth after a long pit stop in the middle part of the race.
In Pro Am, Triarsi Competizione's Ferrari number 13, driven by Justin Wetherill, Ryan Dalziel and Conrad Grunewald, finished sixth, while the car of the same team, the number 23 of Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina flanked by the official Competizioni GT driver Alessio Rovera was forced to retire, following an accident in the final stages of the 8 Hours, when the Italian driver was at the wheel.