21 May 2018
Silverstone, 21 May 2018 - Ferrari left Silverstone and the second round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with a podium finish in the Pro-Am class in what was overall as difficult a race, or even more so than could have been expected.
Pro-Am. Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin did a great job in securing third place for the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Spirit of Race at the end of a complex outing won by the Mercedes of Ram Racing with Yoluc-Hankey-Burke. It was a Sunday to forget for the 488 GT3 of Rinaldi Racing, involved in an accident at the start that left Rinat Salikhov, Alexander Mattschull and Daniel Keilwitz with just a handful of extra championship points. The car started from pole but lost a few laps when it had to return to the pits for repairs after the first lap. This incident inevitably changed the aim of the day from "try to win" to simply "get the car to the finish line". That challenge was met with the drivers and team collecting four points. The other Ferrari in this class, the 488 GT3 of AF Corse crewed by Andrea Bertolini, Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson, also had a tricky race, finishing seventh.
SMP Racing It was a frustrating day in the Overall class for the Ferrari 488 GT3 of SMP Racing with Davide Rigon, Mikhail Aleshin and Miguel Molina. The three, who dominated at Monza until a trivial technical problem, had to deal with the low top speed and came seventh in the group that was battling for third place. Victory went to the Aston Martin of AF Racing AG/R-Motorsport of Vaxiviere-Thiim-Dennis, although all the results are sub judice due to an infringement by the winning car in qualifying.
Am Cup. Ferrari also fought long and hard for the podium in the Am class, with Pierre Ehret, Rory Penttinen and Rick Yoon in car no. 488 of Rinaldi Racing. In the end, it took fourth in a race won by the McLaren of Garage 59 driven by West-Harris-Goodwin but the points secured keep the Ferrari crew in second place in the championship standings. The next round is on 24 and 25 June at the Paul Ricard.