Ferrari just off podium in first Road to Le Mans race

The first of the two races at the Circuit de la Sarthe of the Road to Le Mans, round two of the Le Mans Cup season, saw AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 51, crewed by Kei Cozzolino and Hiroshi Koizumi, finish fourth at the end of a tight battle, with several interruptions because of cars going off track and collisions. Everyone emerged unscathed, but the race ended under a Safety Car and with several penalties. One of these, due to a collision, cost the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 74 of David Fumanelli and Murat Cuhadaroglu the third place they won on the track, knocking them back to fourteenth overall.

Two other AF Corse cars were in the top ten, the 296 GT3 number 83 driven by Frenchmen Charles-Henri Samani and Emmanuel Collard, who finished ninth ahead of the 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 53 crewed by Andrea Montermini and Gino Forgione, who started from eighteenth.

The Piacenza-based team’s fourth car, the 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 52 with Jamie Lee Stanley and Laurent De Meeus, was unlucky, forced to retire after just a few laps.

The second Road to Le Mans race is on Friday, 9 June, at 11.30 a.m.