A tough 6 Hours of Nürburgring for Ferrari

A weekend to forget in a hurry for the Ferrari crews competing in the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, the second round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. The best of the 488 GT3 Evo 2020 crews at the finish line was the #52 AF Corse vehicle taking part in the Pro-Am class which crossed the finish-line in fifth position.

Pro. It was an uphill struggle for the two Ferraris as the race got underway. AF Corse’s #51 went out at the first corner due to contact which left the car with a broken rear left suspension. SMP Racing’s #72 entry was also damaged in the episode; however, a sequence of driver swaps followed that allowed Miguel Molina, Sergey Sirotkin and Davide Rigon to move up through the order. Although the speed of the 488 GT3 Evo 2020 failed to match the pace of the frontrunners, by adopting a longer stint-based strategy than their opponents, the crew was able to claw their way into the battle for podium places in the latter stages of the race. With twenty minutes left, after Davide Rigon had overtaken Haase and was preparing to attack Caldarelli, a collision between the Italian and the Audi driver resulted in a right rear puncture for the Ferrari, forcing Rigon in for an unexpected pit stop, that eventually led to a fourteenth final position, twelfth in the class.

Pro-Am. A fifth final place for the official Ferrari Competizioni GT driver Andrea Bertolini, Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson, who completed the German 6 Hour race aboard AF Corse’s 488 GT3 Evo 2020, proved to be a satisfactory result, albeit far from the team's prior expectations. The three Safety Cars interventions triggered during the race scuttled the Prancing Horse pace and eventually saw the car narrowly miss out on fourth place. A drive-through for not respecting the blend line on a pit lane exit thwarted an otherwise sound strategy from Sky Tempesta Racing, who finished the race in tenth place. Between the two Ferraris, in seventh place, was car #488 belonging to Rinaldi Racing, one of the protagonists, particularly during the Mastronardi and Keilwitz stints.

Forthcoming events. The GT World Challenge Europe will be back on track in France at Magny Cours from 11 to 13 September with the Sprint Cup, while the next Endurance Cup race will be the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, scheduled this coming October 22 to 25.