Weekend notebook: Ferrari triumphs in France, England and Portugal

The Maranello marque enjoyed a successful racing weekend in several competitions, including an impressive overall victory at Le Castellet in the Ultimate Cup Series. The same circuit also saw a first win in the GT Hyper Sprint. There were class victories in round one of the International GT Open season at Estoril and in round two of the GT Cup at Brands Hatch. 

Ultimate Cup Series. In the season’s opening round at Le Castellet, victory went to the trio of David Hallyday, Jean-Bernard Bouvet and Jean-Paul Pagny of the Visiom team in the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020. The crew, who had battled for the title throughout 2021, won the four-hour event, its first-ever victory. The Ferrari dominated, finishing the race one minute and 47 seconds ahead of its nearest rivals.

Three GT Hyper Sprint races were held at Le Castellet on the same weekend. The Ferrari 488 GT3 of Edoardo Barbolini of SR&R-Scuderia Ravetto & Ruberti triumphed in Race-One, with the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo of Alexis Berthet of CMR finishing the twenty-five-minute outing second in the UGT3B class. In Race-2, Barbolini’s teammate Luca Demarchi, finished fourth overall, earning first place in the UGT3A class, while Patrick Michellier of CMR took second in the UGT3B. In the final fifty-minute race with a compulsory pit stop, Michellier and Berthet claimed another second in class.

The next round of the Ultimate Cup Series is on 27-29 May in Spain, at the Navarra circuit.

GT Open. The opening round of the International GT Open took place at Estoril, Portugal, with many Prancing Horse cars competing in the various classes. The first race of the year also saw a win for Kessel Racing’s number 77 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 in the Am, with Omar Jackson and Charles Hollings crossing the line ahead of AF Corse’s number 55 Ferrari driven by Laurent De Meeus and Jamie Stanley. The number 73 of Kessel Racing, crewed by Roman Ziemian and Axcil Jefferies, finished second in the Pro Am class.

In Race-2, De Meeus and Stanley recorded another podium finish with second place in the Am class, ahead of the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Stanislaw Jedlinski and Krystian Korzeniowski of Olimp Racing, forced out in Race-1 after an incident on the first lap, along with Earle and Zanotti in the number 11 Ferrari of Kessel Racing.

Round two will take place on 22 May at the Paul Ricard.

GT Cup Championship. Ferraris once again took centre stage in the GTC class in the second round of the GT Cup series. Lucky Khera and David McDonald, in Racelab’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, claimed three victories in the four races at Brands Hatch, with a third-place on the podium in the final outing.

FF Corse’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, driven by Roy Millington and Benny Simonsen, performed well, with two third places in the GTC class.

Khera and McDonald consolidated their lead in the GTC class with these results. The next event is in Snetterton on 11 and 12 June.