23 January 2017
Sepang, 22 Jan 2017 - Ferrari will have an extra a car, the 488 of the Chinese team DH Racing, at the next 24 Hours of Le Mans, which takes place on 18 June in France. On Sunday the car sealed the Asian Le Mans Series Teams' and Drivers' title with Michele Rugolo.
Tough race. The race was hard fought and eventually won by the Audi of Korea team crewed by Kyong Ouk, Marchy Lee and Alex Yoong, who used to race in Formula 1 with Minardi, but the championship was an all Ferrari affair. The title went to the 488 GT3 of DH Racing, as mentioned, while Michele Rugolo clinched the Drivers' title for himself alone due to driving the first race of the season with one set of crewmates and then the next three with Stephane Lemeret and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Fifth place was enough for car no. 5 to clinch the title. Two other Ferrari crews joined the winners on the podium: the 488 no. 3 of DH Racing, with Italy's Rino Mastronardi, Spain's Alex Riberas and Monaco's official Ferrari driver, Olivier Beretta, and the no. 37 of BBT driven by China's Anthony Liu Xu, Davide Rizzo and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Rugolo. This was Michele Rugolo's second victory in the Asian Le Mans Series after the title he won in 2013 with the Ferrari 458 Italia of AF Corse. The Montebelluna driver, born on 31 August 1982, started racing in karting in 1992 before switching to Formula Renault in 2000. To his credit among other things, is victory in the 6 Hours of Rome of 2002 and in the Gulf 12 hours, in Abu Dhabi, 2014.