The ten Ferraris competing in round one of the Italian GT Championship at Monza over the weekend took home some excellent results. Matteo Greco and Fabrizio Crestani’s overall victory stands out among the many class wins, with the pair moving to the top of the overall ranking.
Race-1. Matteo Greco and Fabrizio Crestani of Easy Race took the winner’s laurels in Race-1, held over two days. The first part on Saturday afternoon was suspended after four laps behind the Safety Car due to torrential rain. Victory in a race that also counts for the GT3 PRO class was calculated by adding Saturday's times to Sunday morning's 36-minutes plus one lap. The Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 no. 3 crossed the line over 21 seconds ahead of its rivals, taking full advantage of the successful strategy of fitting slicks on a damp but quickly drying track.
The Ferrari no. 58 of Ram Autoracing, crewed by Luca Filippi and Alberto Lippi, came fifth overall and first in the PRO-AM class, setting up victory with an excellent start. Carrie Schreiner – Sean Hudspeth of AF Corse finished third in the same class. Simon Mann and Toni Vilander, also from the Piacenza-based team, were fifth in the Ferrari no. 21
Murat Cuhadaroglu – Niccolò Schirò of Kessel Racing claimed another victory in the GT3 AM class. Peter Mann – Lorenzo Casè of AF Corse joined them on the podium, passing under the flag third in their class, ahead of Steve Earle.
In the GT CUP, the class open to one-make cars, Luca Demarchi – Nicholas Risitano from SR&R mounted the third step of the podium with the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo no. 333, ahead of Easy Race's Francesca Linossi and Daniel Webster. Ninth place went to Maurizio Pitorri and Gianluigi Simonelli of Best Lap.
Race-2. The second Sunday outing for the Italian GT Championship saw another win, this time for Linossi – Vebster in the GTCUP. The Easy Race crew crossed the line in second but were awarded victory after the race when the Lamborghini, first under the flag, was penalised for an irregular gear change. Demarchi – Risitano of SR&R finished fifth, while Pitorri – Simonelli of Best Lap took eighth place.
Ninth place overall, fourth in the GT3 PRO class, went to Greco – Crestani of Easy Race, putting them joint top in the overall standings on 22 points.
In the GT3 AM, Cuhadaroglu – Schirò of Kessel Racing claimed second place, ahead of the AF Corse Ferrari no. 51 of Peter Mann – Casè and Steve Earle in the Kessel Racing no. 11.
In the GT3 PRO-AM, Simon Mann and Vilander finished fifth, ahead of Filippi – Lippi of Ram Autoracing and Schreiner – Hudspeth of AF Corse.
Calendar. The Italian GT Championship next goes to Pergusa from 21 to 23 May for the start of the Endurance series season.