30 July 2017
Francorchamps, 30 July 2017 - Shortly after 7am on Sunday, the dream of winning the 24 Hours of Spa came to an abrupt end for Kaspersky Motorsport's Ferrari 488 GT3. After staying amongst the leaders all night, thanks mainly to a heroic Giancarlo Fisichella, who managed to stay on track with slick tyres despite the heavy rain falling over the Ardennes, the Ferrari's race ended after a contact with Mercedes no. 90. Marco Cioci was at the wheel of the Ferrari, when Raffaele Marciello's car smashed into it at La Source. In the collision the Ferrari suffered a damaged steering arm, which caused Cioci to career off into the barriers at Eau Rouge. In the Pro class, the only the 488 GT3 left, SMP Racing no. 72 driven by Davide Rigon, Victor Shaytar and Miguel Molina, lost 19 laps when its hydraulic power steering pump needed changing.
Other classes. Ferrari continues to dominate in the Am class where the race is led by the 488 GT3 no. 888 of Kessel Racing crewed by local idol Jacque Duyver, along with Marco Zanuttini, David Perel and Niki Cadei. The 488 GT3 no. 488 of Rinaldi Racing is still in second, driven by Pierre Ehret, Rino Mastronardi, Gabriele Lancieri and Patrick Van Glabecke. In the Pro-Am class the best-placed Ferrari is no. 961 of Spirit Of Race crewed by Toni Vilander, Alex Demirdjian, Davide Rizzo and Nicolas Minassian, which is third in front of the 488 GT3 no. 51 of AF Corse with Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta, Lorenzo Bontempelli and Francesco Castellacci.