Italian GT, Misano – Race One Report
Autorlando Takes The Win

The long awaited Round 2 of the Italian GT Championship finally got going on Saturday night at Misano under a cloudy sky.
 
Qualifying had seen the Autorlando Porsche finish on top with Paolo Ruberti (welcome back after the Blancpain duties) putting in a blinding lap more than a second faster than Cicognani in the first of the Audi R8s. Third was not the other Audi, but the newcomer Corvette of Di Benedetto. The second Audi of the points-leader Bonanomi was actually all but last, after a technical failure on the first lap of the session ruined the result. First in GT Cup and fourth overall was the “usual suspect” Gallardo of Sanna from Mastronardi in the revised and lighter 997. Behind them came Passuti and Iacone, also with Porsches, then the other Gallardos of Zanardini and Livio. De Lorenzi took pole-position in GT4 in the “almost all Ginetta G50” class.
 
The start was a good one, with Ruberti turning first followed by Cicognani and Di Benedetto.

The status quo was also maintained in GT Cup, with Sanna on top from Mastronardi and a hard charging Livio, who made a great start. Cicognani outbraked himself and lost the position to the Vette, while Bonanomi was recovering fast and passing cars left, right and centre. In GT Cup Sanna was still leading, but Iacone was rapidly making ground and was soon second from two “angry bulls” at his back.
 
After ten minutes Bonanomi was already on the tail of the GT Cup leaders, but from then on it looked like it would be hard work to overtake the “angry pack”…or would it? Not quite, Bonanomi overtook all the GT Cup leading cars in a mere lap and a half. In GT4 we had a “stereo spin” of the two Ginettas of Foglio and Saggese, while the Cayman managed to lose its right door…
 
Dramas ahead, suddenly, as Zanardini and Livio collided in a very fast right hand turn. Zanardini had tried a very optimistic move and the damage that resulted meant Livio had to retire his Gallardo with right rear damage.
 
Upfront, Ruberti was quietly but constantly pulling away tenth by tenth from Di Benedetto and Cicognani and he soon had almost ten seconds in hand. Sanna was still leading the GT Cup class, from Iacone and Passuti. De Lorenzi led in GT4.
 
The pit stop didn’t change too much in GT3, because the Audis had to stop much longer due to the time penalty, so Cordoni-(Ruberti) was still leading with a very healthy margin (almost 55 seconds) over Merendino-(Di Benedetto) in the Vette. Cola-(Cicognani) was third from the other Audi of Sonvico-(Bonanomi). The GT Cup was turned completely upside down, (thanks again to the time penalty) - upfront we now had a three-way Porsche battle with Gagliardini-(Passuti), Tavano-(Iacone) and Fornaroli-(Mastronardi), then Stancheris-(Sanna) and the Ferrari of Malucelli-(Pierleoni). Tavano and Gagliardini were soon easing away and beginning a hard but clean battle.
 
The final minutes saw both the Audis overtaking the Corvette, with Sonvico finally finishing second and Cola third. Sadly, the Vette retired some minutes later with a steering column failure.

Cordoni took the victory for the Autorlando Porsche with a perfect race from him, and Ruberti in the first part.

The real excitement was in the Cup class, where Tavano finally able to maintain the lead from Gagliardini, while Fornaroli completed an all-Stuttgart podium. Stancheris finished fourth in the lonely “healthy” Gallardo, while Malucelli finished fifth in class for the Maranello honour.

GT4 was an all-Ginetta affair with Lasagni-Foglio first, than Cassera-DeLorenzi and Saggese-Emiliani third. The GT2 class, with only two cars, saw Rosseto-Geri first in the “old” 430 from the retiring Coggiola brothers’ 997 RSR in second.

Gabriele Tosi