Far from an easy Sunday for David Tonizza and Enzo Bonito, in the penultimate round of the SRO E-Sport championship played out on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit layout. Of the two FDA (Ferrari Driver Academy) Hublot Esports Team drivers only Tonizza managed to score a point and so “Tonzilla” has lost the lead in the championship with just one round to go.
Qualifying. Of the two, Bonito did best in qualifying, managing to put his 488 GT3 in fifth place on the grid, while Tonizza could do no better than eighth. Pole went to the Racing oN3 McLaren of Patrick Selva.
Start. At the start the two FDA Hublot Esports Team drivers lost ground, Bonito down to eighth and Tonizza tenth. The early stages saw a long train of cars with nothing much happening, but around half distance Selva was passed by the G2 Esports McLaren of Arthur Kammerer, while Bonito was involved in a collision with the GTWR Racing Team Audi of Giorgio Simonini and lost several places. David Tonizza profited from this to move up to eighth, shadowed by the Spaniard Alberto Garcia (K-PAX Racing with SIRIO eSports).
Final. As the race panned out, it was clear that the Spanish track was particularly suited to the McLarens so that the English cars were in the top four places, with Kammerer followed by Selva, Nils Naujoks (G2 Esports) and Jura Petritchenko (AJAR Simracing Team). Tonizza was eighth up until the final chicane on the last lap when he was hit and spun round by Garcia, who was given a 30 second penalty for the move, thus promoting Tonizza to tenth. Bonito made up a bit of ground after the accident but could do no better than 14th, which became 13th thanks to the Bentley driver’s penalty. The other Ferraris were further back.
Pro Class. In the Pro class for professional drivers, the win went to Switzerland’s Louis Deletraz (GPX Racing Porsche), while Federico Leo was third in the Ferrari 488 GT3 entered by Leo Racing Team. The other 488 GT3s finished respectively eighth with David Fumanelli (Kessel Racing); ninth with Nicolas Hillebrand (Buttler-Pat Motorsport), 11th with David Perel (Rinaldi Racing); 13th, 14th, 15th, respectively with, Chris Froggatt (Sky Tempesta Racing), Nicklas Nielsen (Ferrari Competizioni GT) and Maksim Yefanov (Fasttunung).
Championship and calendar. Leading the Silver class standings is Patrick Selva on 45 points ahead of Kammerer with 43 and Tonizza on 32.The FDA Hublot Esports Team driver needs to finish at least third in the final round if is to have a hope of taking the title, hoping for a poorer showing from the McLaren drivers. However, with the British car filling the top four places, the BOP (Balance of Performance) for it at the final race should have quite an effect, which gives David further reason to hope he can turn things around. The race takes place on 21 June on track chosen by a fan vote from Laguna Seca (USA), Mount Panorama (home to the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia), Kyalami (South Africa) or Suzuka (Japan).