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Italian GT, Imola – Race Two Report
Audi Strikes Back
 
Again, a scorching sun welcomed the cars for Race 2 of the Italian GT Championship at Imola, with no sign of even a hint of the much predicted heavy thunderstorms. As a result, the late morning race promised even more spectacle in all classes than we’d seen the previous day.
 
After its pitstop in Race 1, the Audi of Sonvico-Bonanomi overtook on the right side in the pitlane the much slower Porsche of Gagliardini-Passuti (the car having a 56kmh pitlane speed limiter instead of the usual 60).

The Autorlando team made an official protest, saying the obvious thing that you can’t overtake any car in the pitlane - but the answer from the stewards was rather interesting; “There’s no indication in the rule book that you can’t overtake a car in the pit lane,” so no action was taken against the Audi. No comment about that. The Porsche of Tavano-Iacone was a non-starter due to engine failure in Race 1.
 
The start of the race was almost a “perfect murder” by the Audi team; Sonvico kept the lead, but also allowed Cicognani to overtake Ruberti. German strategy or an Italian job? You decide…

Meanwhile, Malucelli swept into the lead in the Cup class from Livio, Stancheris, Mastronardi, the GT3 Vette of Merendino, Giovanardi and Gagliardini. The “ill” Ruberti was not happy about the Audi move and soon overtook Cicognani for second, but it took several more laps to overtake Sonvico. He eventually got the job done, but could he now accumulate sufficient time for the second stint of Cordoni?

 
Malucelli was able to keep the lead in the Cup class until the pit stop as, despite the much newer car of Livio (thanks to the BOP), the old 430 is currently the class of the field.

Another retirement in the class was the Porsche of Mastronardi-Fornaroli (gearbox failure).

 
Lasagni was the leader in GT4 in the Ginetta, from Maranelli and Belotti still with the British car.

Merendino was finally able to overtake all the Cup class cars, but Malucelli made his job a little too hard for the normal standard…no gentlemen driver…but nothing major happened.
 
Ruberti was clearly not feeling 100% due to his illness and gave the car to Cordoni with only a few seconds in hand. As a result Cordoni could only manage to keep Capello (who took the Audi from Cicognani) behind until the last 10 minutes.

Bonanomi, who took the car from Sonvico, was targeting a well deserved win, but on his first lap out the pits (after the change) made a mistake and spun out of the Variante Alta, losing lots of time, two positions and damaging the set of tyres. He couldn’t reach Cordoni and instead, at the end, was able only to keep the lower spot of the podium after fending off a late attack by the Corvette of Di Benedetto; who himself had quickly recovered from a slow stint by Merendino. At the end it was an Audi win, but with the “wrong pair”, the Autorlando troops score a good second spot and Bonanomi-Sonvico managed only a third. The Vette was fourth.

The real duel and dramas were in the Cup class. After the pitstop, Pierleoni-(Malucelli) was still leading from Piccini-(Livio) and Sanna-(Stancheris).

The other contenders (the Porsches) were too far away to fight for the podium. The final laps saw Piccini trying to find a way to overtake the Ferrari. At the end of the main straight, it looked like he’d managed it, but the Ferrari closed the door and the two cars entered the escape (sand) road at very high speed. Amazingly, both were able to continue, with the white Lambo of Piccini looking very much second hand. Who took advantage of this situation? Of course, the second Lambo of Sanna, who said “thank you very much,” and crossed the line first for a very well deserved win, despite the maximum time penalty.

Piccini finished second, only to be found guilty of the move and was demoted to third behind Malucelli.

Fourth was Gagliardini-Passuti, then Baccani-Giovanardi and the Russian pair of Kruglyk-Basov.
 
GT4 saw another Ginetta victory for Lasagni-Foglio. Zanini-Maranelli finished second, while third was Saggese-Emiliani.

The class leader Capelletti finished only fourth.
 
The second part of the season has begun with the temperature rising both off and on track. With the compulsory dropped-scores, Cordoni-Ruberti are still leading the standings but both the Audi pairs are very close. In the Cup class the Lambo guys are on top (thanks again to the must drop scores) but the “old” 430 of Malucelli-Pierleoni is clearly a title contender. The Porsche armada is still struggling with a too heavily penalised car (thanks to the BOP), and only Passuti-Gagliardini and Mastronardi-Fornaroli are in “title chase mode”.
 
The next round takes place at the beautiful track of Mugello the same weekend as the 24 hours of Spa, July 30/31.

Gabriele Tosi