A red letter weekend for the Ferraris 488 GT3 and 488 GTE competing in the main GT championships. One overall victory, three class wins and four podiums confirmed the competitiveness of the cars from Maranello.
SMP Racing triumph at Silverstone. At the end of a race as exciting as it was intense, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of SMP Racing driven by Mikhail Aleshin and official Competizioni GT drivers Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina stamped their authority on the third round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, disputed today at the British circuit of Silverstone. The highlight of the race came twenty minutes from the chequered flag when Davide Rigon, with a splendid overtaking manoeuvre on Venturini's Lamborghini at Luffield to complete a fine comeback started earlier by team-mates. In the Pro-Am class, after so many disappointments and bad luck, the AF Corse Ferrari deployed by Niek Hommerson, Louis Machiels and Andrea Bertolini finished second in the race less than three seconds behind Ram Racing’s Mercedes, while the 488 GT3 of Tempesta Racing of Chris Buncombe, Jonathan Hui and Chris Froggatt, after the victory in Monza, completed the three-hour race in fourth position.
Victory in Asia. Ferrari 488 GT3s also featured in the second round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia. A GT3S victory in Race-2 and a Pro-Am class podium in Race-1 summed up the Ferrari weekend at the Chang International Circuit, in Buriram, Thailand. A notable weekend for the Maranello cars, in particular, for the HubAuto Corsa team which, with victory in the GT3S class for Yuya Sakamoto and Andre Heimgartner in Race-2, have displayed fine progress in both the driver and team standings. In Race-1, meanwhile, the T2 Motorsports crew made up of ex-Formula 1 driver Ryo Haryanto and David Tjiptobiantoro finished second in the Pro-Am class.
Podium at Monza in the ELMS. At the end of an intense 4 Hours of Monza, the Ferraris concluded second and third in a race where the ballast aboard the cars of Luzich Racing (30kg) and Kessel Racing (20kg on the number 83) and the Balance of Performance applied to all 488 GTEs affected the final outcome. It was, nevertheless, an upbeat race for the cars from Maranello who managed to be protagonists in every phase of the race. On the podium were the Segal-Cressoni-Lu crews of JMW Motorsport and Pier Guidi-Nielsen-Lavergne of Luzich Racing. Unlucky for the three women at the wheel of Kessel Racing’s 488 GTE: Manuela Gostner, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey who finished in sixth place after having occupied podium positions for a lengthy stretch.
Podium lockout in the Le Mans Cup. With an authoritative triple, Luzich Racing's Ferrari 488 GT3, Kessel Racing and Spirit of Race prevailed in the second round of the Le Mans Cup held today at the Monza circuit. Celebrating on the top step of the podium were Mikkel Mac and Fabien Lavergne, flanked by current champions Sergio Pianezzola and Giacomo Piccini and the team drivers from Spirit of Race, Christoph Ulrich and Maurizio Mediani.