Weekend preview: for Ferrari European races

Many Ferraris will line up at Mugello for round two of the Italian GT Championship Endurance series. The fourth leg of the 24H Series takes place in Estoril, Portugal, with two 296 GT3s. The Prancing Horse’s new racing car will also compete in the DTM championship on the Nuremberg street circuit and, again in Germany, in round five of the Nürburgring Endurance Series.

CIGT. After their victory at Pergusa in the opening round of the CIGT Endurance series, Giancarlo Fisichella and Tommaso Mosca return on the track at Mugello in the number 27 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Scuderia Baldini. Their rivals in Tuscany also include a second Maranello car, AF Corse’s number 51, driven by the Ferrari Challenge Europe leader, Eliseo Donno, who, alongside Jules Castro and Stefano Gai, just finished fourth in Sicily.

In the GT Cup, open to single-marque cars, the Best Lap team returns to the fray after its triumph in Sicily in the Pro Am class, with Luca Demarchi, Simone Patrinicola and Sabatino Di Mare again driving the 488 Challenge Evo.

Two SR&R team Ferraris will be fielded in the Am class. Manuel Menichini will join Alessio Bacci and Francesco Atzori in the number 251 car. The latter two won the first seasonal event alongside Francesco La Mazza.  Enrico Di Leo and La Mazza will be in the number 252 sister car, while the third crew member is yet to be decided.

The two-hour race will start at 2 p.m. on Sunday, 9 July.

24H Series. The Estoril circuit will host its first-ever leg of the 24H Series. Two Ferrari 296 GT3s are due to start in this weekend’s 12 Hours, the fourth and penultimate European round. The GT3 class will feature the number 8 of Kessel Racing, fresh from a seventh-place finish in the 12 Hours of Monza with LMDV, Alessandro Cutrera, Marco Talarico, Marco Frezza and David Fumanelli at the steering wheel. The German WTM by Rinaldi Racing team’s number 22 car will also feature in the GT3 Am with Georg Weiss, Leonard Weiss, Jochen Krumbach and Torsten Kratz.

The 12-hour race is set to start at 9. a.m. on Sunday, 9 July.

DTM. Round three of the DTM championship takes place in Nuremberg on the 2.3-kilometre Norisring street circuit. A narrow track, bumps and sharp braking after fast straights will put drivers and teams to the test. The two 296 GT3s of Emil Frey Racing will represent the Maranello manufacturer. After his absence at Zandvoort where Albert Costa replaced him, British driver Jack Aitken returns and will be at the wheel of the number 14 car. Thierry Vermeulen will again drive the number 69, with the Dutchman looking for points after the unfortunate outings on his home circuit.

Qualifying, divided into two groups, will run from 9.35 to 10.20 a.m. on Saturday, 8 July, with Race-1 starting at 1.30 p.m. and finishing at 2.30 p.m. On Sunday, the second morning qualifying session will follow the same schedule to decide the grid for Race-2, which will set off at 1.30 p.m.

NLS. The 6h ADAC Ruhr Pokal Rennen, round five of the Nürburgring Endurance Series championship, takes place on Saturday, 8 July. The entry list for the six-hour event includes a Ferrari 296 GT3 fielded by Racing One. In this year’s championship, the number 19 triumphed in the SP9 Pro Am class in the Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy.

The track activities take place on Saturday, 8 July, with qualifying from 8.30 to 10 a.m. The race starts at 12 p.m. and ends at 6 p.m. (all times are local).