Ferrari have once again triumphed in the IMSA series with a fantastic double – both driver and team wins – in the Endurance Cup, with Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon crowned champions in the GTD Pro class, while Risi Competizione clinched the team competition honours. The result came at the end of the Petit Le Mans, the season showdown of the American series, where the 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of the new champions, helped out on the occasion by James Calado, had crossed the finish line in first place only to be relegated to seventh after the race. In the GTD class, eighth and tenth spots went to the two AF Corse and Cetilar Racing-run Ferraris involved in the great Georgia classic.
GTD Pro. The Risi Competizione-entered Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, starting from fourth place, was quickly in the limelight thanks to the team’s superbly executed pit stops and the pace of Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra and James Calado. The British driver, in particular, handed over the wheel to Serra for the final stages after some very high-speed stints. The Brazilian took the race lead and was first past the chequered flag but, having exceeded the maximum allowed driving time by some 11 minutes, was subsequently relegated, along with his team-mates, to seventh and final place in the class. In spite of the penalty, the points accrued during the race and those awarded at the end, were enough to ensure a historic double win in the Endurance Cup in both the drivers' and teams' standings.
GTD. The Petit Le Mans proved to be a tough one for the no. 21 and no. 47 488 GT3 Evo 2020s, finishing in eighth and tenth place in the class in which the gentleman drivers also compete. For the AF Corse car, crewed by Simon Mann, Luis Perez Companc and Toni Vilander, starting from the fourth row, the result was also determined by the driver-swaps, with the Frenchman and the Finn busy in the early stints, leaving Companc, a Bronze licensed driver, plenty of space over the final hours when the on-track competition got tougher and more heated due to the Pro driver presence.
Elsewhere, the race of car no. 47, driven by Giorgio Sernagiotto, Ulysse De Pauw and Roberto Lacorte, was decided by some minor mishaps in the pits, causing the team to drop time and pick up a penalty that they were unable to make up in the race, eventually finishing in tenth place.
The standings. Thanks to the points earned in the race, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon take the GTD Pro drivers' title in the Endurance Cup, two points clear of the runners-up. A Ferrari crew thus returns to the top of the category standings six years after the most recent occasion in 2016, when Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen took the title in the Scuderia Corsa-run 488 GT3, in the GTD class, both in the overall ranking as well as the one featuring the endurance events.
The 2022 Petit Le Mans also allows Risi Competizione to claim the teams' title, renewing a long tradition in the series and the Petit Le Mans itself, with the outfit registering a total of five wins from the inaugural edition in 1998 to the present day. In the GTD class, AF Corse and the crew of the no. 21 488 GT3 Evo 2020 finish second in their respective tables. In the Constructors' standings, Ferrari end the year as runner-up in both GTD Pro and GTD.