Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio Gollin took their first overall
win of the season in their BMS Scuderia Italia 550 M. The win gave
them second place in the Championship behind their team-mates Bobbi
and Biagi, after a close battle with Lilian Bryner and Enzo Calderari.
With JMB Racing's 575s finishing fourth and fifth, Ferrari took
five of the top six places.
"It was a great race and I have to thank our engineer Marco
Galuppi who made a wonderful strategy, we finished with only 6 litres
in the tank but we didn't have to make a splash and dash,"
Luca explained. "So we won the fight with Enzo and Lilian,
with whom we were fighting for the title. Many congratulations to
the team who have done a fantastic job all season. We have got to
the finish line in nine races out of ten, and my team-mate Fabrizio
was very fast."
At the start, the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari of Gollin got ahead
of the pole-sitter, the Force One Viper of Kumpen/ Hezemans/ Alliot
and began to pull away. By lap ten the Care Racing 550 M of Calderari/
Bryner/Livio took third, overtaking for second seven laps later
and taking the lead on lap 46. . It looked as if Care Racing would
take its first win of the season, but a last-minute splash and dash
on this fuel-thirsty track put the Cappellari/Gollin car back into
the lead. At the chequered flag, they were still ahead of the Care
Racing 550 M. The two new Ferrari 575 M Maranello cars came in fourth
and fifth, with BMS 550 M of Bobbi/Biagi, damaged in a collision
with a Porsche early on, recovering to sixth.
In N-GT, the season started as it ended, with another strong performance
by JMB Racing's Andrea Bertolini and Fabrizio De Simone in their
360. The two Italians took their fourth win of the season, their
third in a row. With neither Team Maranello Concessionaires car
finishing in the points, JMB Racing moved up to second in the Teams
Classification, with De Simone finishing third and Andrea Bertolini
moving up to fourth ahead of TMC's Jamie Davies in the drivers'
championship.
In the race the EMKA Racing Porsche got ahead of the pole-sitting
JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena of Bertolini/de Simone at the start.
However, it was caught out when a slower GT car braked ahead of
it, and Emmanuel Collard spun out . This put Bertolini in the lead,
a position he only lost during pit-stops until the end of the race.
The Freisinger Motorsport Porsche of Lieb/Ortelli remained in second
place throughout, securing their Championship. The second JMB car
of Gosse/ Kutemann finished in seventh place - meaning that all
four JMB Racing cars finished in the points.
Fabrizio De Simone said “It was a very good result for us,
with three victories in the last three races, which is the result
of the work done by Pirelli, the big developments of the car made
by Ferrari and the work that we put in together with the team. I
am really very happy about this; we had some problems during the
season that stopped us in the rush for the Championship, but that's
OK. I'm very happy for Stéphane and Marc. I think it was
very good to come to the race with some chances for the Championship.
It was very good; we won the race, we did our work, and that's it."
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