IMSA - Risi Competizione Return Brings Ferrari Podium at VIR

Danville, 27 August 2017 – Risi Competizione’s return to the IMSA SportsCar Championship netted the a third-place finish for their Ferrari 488 GTE on Sunday afternoon at the IMSA GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. The IMSA GT Challenge, which featured the GT-LeMans and GT-Daytona classes, was a caution-free race that featured numerous incidents and close battles for the pair of Rosso Corsa Ferraris in two hours and forty minutes of racing.   GT-Le Mans. Starting from fourth position the no. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Giancarlo Fisichella was pushed off course on the opening lap, but recovered to run in second position after the first round of pit stops.   Final minutes. Toni Vilander then took over and led the race in the Ferrari during the second hour and Fisichella took over for the closing stint. Despite an off-course excusion in the final minutes after a misunderstanding with Jens Klingman, Fisichella brought the Ferrari to the checkered flag in third position exploiting an accident between the No. 66 Ford of Dirk Muller and the No. 4 Chevrolet of Tommy Milner. This was Risi Competizione’s third podium finish of the season and the team also won the Dekra Green Challenge Award for the third time this year. The race was won by the Chevrolet of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen.   GT-Daytona. In the GT-Daytona class, Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen recorded a fourth place finish – their eighth top-five finish in ten races this season. Starting from tenth position, Nielsen made up several places at the start of the race to move the no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 up to fifth. Balzan took the Ferrari over at the first round of stops in sixth position and drove up to fifth in the second hour of the race and then to fourth in the closing stages. Winning the race were Jerome Mul and Corey Lewis on the Change Racing Lamborghini.   Situation. By finishing in fourth position, Balzan and Nielsen’s championship lead remains strong at 13 points with two races remaining in the season. The next race on the schedule is the IMSA Monterey Grand Prix, September 21-24, at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.