Double podium for Ferrari at Monza in the GT Open

The 2019 International GT Open season has concluded with a double third place for the Spirit of Race Ferrari crews. On the Monza circuit, the #21 488 GT3 of Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron finished the race on the bottom step of the Pro-Am class podium, a position replicated in the Am class standings by team-mates Francesco Piovanetti and Oswaldo Negri in the #51 Ferrari.

Apparent calm. After a qualifying session which had seen the Ferraris far from the front row of the grid, Negri and Cameron attempted to stage a comeback from the very outset. The Brazilian driver, although losing the position gained at the start, held firm in second place in Am class, while Cameron pulled back as far as sixteenth place before dropping back to nineteenth after going wide and off the track at the Variante Ascari bend. The episode occurred shortly before the opening of the pit-stop window for the driver swap. Griffin boarded the 488 GT3 with 36 minutes still left to contest, while Piovanetti left it right down to the fifteen-minute deadline to come in for the service.

Assault on the podium. Griffin began a furious comeback which in no time had him among the overall top ten, third in the Pro-Am class, thanks also to some white-knuckle overtaking. Piovanetti meanwhile, even though struggling to maintain the pace of his team-mate, defended his third place in Am to wrap up the race in seventeenth place.