Weekend notebook: victories at Spa and Portimão

The Maranello manufacturer enjoyed an excellent weekend with victories in the Ultimate Cup Series, by the Visiom and SR&R teams in the Endurance and Sprint Cup, respectively, and in the GT Cup Europe. However, the DTM weekend was tricky for the Prancing Horse cars.

DTM. Emil Frey Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3s competed at the Lausitzring circuit in the second round of the season. In Race-1, Jack Aitken, driving Ferrari number 14, spun out after contact with an opponent nine minutes from the chequered flag, finishing 15th, ahead of teammate Thierry Vermeulen. However, Race-2 ended with Vermeulen and Aitken taking 13th and 14th places, respectively.

The season’s third round is on 8-9 June at Zanvoort in the Netherlands, where the second round of the ADAC GT Masters will also run.

International GT Open. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit hosted round three of the championship, the GT Open 500, a single race of 2 hours and 40 minutes plus one lap. The race ended with Olimp Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 5, with drivers Stanislaw Jedliński and Krystian Korzeniowski, securing third place in the Am class.

The best overall finish for the Ferraris on the track was 13th for Spirit of Race’s 296 GT3 number 27, crewed by Marco Pulcini and Eddie Cheever. Their fifth place in the Pro-Am class kept them in leading position in the class standings with 39 points.

Among the Pros, Spirit of Race’s number 51 Ferrari, driven by Nicola Marinangeli and Vincent Abril, took ninth place, penalised by a drive-through for contact at the start.

The next round is on 23 June at the Hungaroring.

GT Cup Europe. The Spa track also hosted round three of the GT Cup Europe, where MERTEL Motorsport’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, driven by Iván Velasco and Luca Ludwig, triumphed in Race-1. The Prancing Horse’s number 80 took pole position, set the fastest lap, and won the race. Rossocorsa’s Ferrari number 17, driven by Lorenzo Innocenti and Niccolò Schirò, also made it to the podium.

In Race-2, the MERTEL Motorsport team crew failed to repeat the win due to a challenging qualifying session. Although they finished in eighth place, they remained in leading position in the Pro-Am standings with a slim one-point advantage over their pursuers. Innocenti and Schirò vied for victory until the last lap, but after a long struggle with the race leader, they had to settle for the runner-up spot. The Italian pair set the fastest lap in the race.

Alba Vázquez and Laura van den Hengel in MERTEL Motorsport’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 83 were the best in the Am class, placing fifth in Race-2. The next event is on 21 July at the Paul Ricard.

Ultimate Cup Series. After their victory in the first round at Le Castellet, Visiom scored another win at Portimão in the four-hour Trofeu GT Endurance Cup round.

Starting from second on the grid, Jean-Paul Pagny, Jean Bernard Bouvet, and David Hallyday gave their Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 1 the race lead, thanks to an impeccable strategy, and defended it down to the chequered flag. The Visiom trio, defending series’ champions, thus extended their advantage in the overall standings.

Ferrari secured two wins in the Trofeu GT Sprint thanks to Francesco Atzori in the UCS1/UCT category. At the wheel of the 488 GT3 number 3 of SR&R, he triumphed in Race-2 and Race-4, starting from pole position and setting the best lap time.

Among the other Maranello cars, noteworthy were Lyle Schofield’s second place in Race-3, driving SR&R’s 488 Challenge Evo number 353 in the UCS3/UCT category, and Fréderic Lacore’s double fourth place in Racing Spirit of Leman’s Ferrari 488 Challenge number 91.

The championship will return on the track at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany on 4-7 July.