Italian GT, Magione – GT2/3/4 Report
Stuttgart 1 - Ingolstadt 1
 
Round three of the Italian GT Championship, beginning the “summer stretch”, was held at the Autodromo Enzo Borzacchini of Magione in the centre of Italy; a naturally twisty and short track, where the hot conditions and the dirty track usual favours the German cars…or more specifically the Stuttgart ones.

As reported, this time the categories have been split into four separate races, two the for the GT2-GT3 and GT4, and the other for the GT Cup only.
 
Qualifying for the GT2/3/4 class was the usual job upfront with an all-Audi R8 front row for Race 1, with Capello (very) fresh from the very unlucky (for him, “Nishy” and Tom) Le Mans, taking the pole from the other car of Sonvico.

Third was Cordoni in the Autorlando Porsche. Behind the GT3 pack were the two GT2 cars, with the Coggiola brothers’ Porsche in front of Rossetto’s Ferrari 430. In GT4 - in almost a full Ginetta pack, except for the Cayman of Brambati-Donati - saw Lasagni from Frazza and Saggese.

 
Qualifying 2 was the exact opposite, with Ruberti (partnering Cordoni) in the 911 R Porsche clocking a stellar pole from Bonanomi and Cicognani in the Audis. In GT2 this time Geri took the pole for the Ferrari pride from the Coggiola brothers’ Porsche. It was again all Ginettas upfront in GT4; Emiliani took the pole from Foglio and Maranelli.
 
Race 1

This was the very first item in the programme at 9.00 a.m., but the field took the green flag with the temperature already 25+°C.

Capello kept the first spot, while Cordoni, with a robust move, swept the second spot from Sonvico. Fourth was Rossetto; fifth was Coggiola; while Cappelletti decided to have a spin in his Ginetta. The lead of GT4 was held by Lasagni, who was escaping from the British pack at one second per lap. Limonta was second, Frazza third, while Maranelli decided to have a spin too.
 
Upfront Capello was keeping the lead and had now almost a five-second advantage over Cordoni, who was having a hard time to keep Sonvico behind him. Behind this trio V Coggiola overtook Rossetto for the GT2 lead. The Ginetta pack was led by Lasagni, with a big margin from Limonta, while the fight for third place was a five-way scrap, involving all of the remaining cars. The Ginetta seemed to like the “donuts”, with Maranelli having two full spins in a lap.
 
The situation didn’t change up until the mandatory pit stop…or did it? Sonvico found a little gap and got Cordoni (with a slight touch) for the second spot, and this was the only real move until the second drivers took the cars from their teammates. The new standings saw Cicognani-(Capello) with a safe lead (thanks to a smaller time penalty to serve) over Ruberti-(Cordoni), almost 25 seconds back, Bonanomi-(Sonvico) was third. The Coggiola brothers kept the lead in GT2 throughout the second part of the race until the chequered flag.

GT4 was all about Lasagni-(Foglio), and despite the full time penalty they won with a safe margin from Emiliani-(Saggese) and the Cayman of Brambati-(Donaviti).
 
Upfront Ruberti had seemingly begun a 25-minute qualifying run, eating 1.5 to 2.5 seconds per lap from Cicognani, who was clearly not used to lapping slow cars.

The gap constantly came down lap after lap, and - most importantly - due to an irregular driver change the Audi was given a 1.65 second penalty making a strange situation for the final laps. Ruberti was still five seconds behind Cicognani when the last lap began; job done for the Audi? Not quite, because Cicognani found heavy traffic in the last part of the lap and lost all the advantage to Ruberti – he crossed the line first, but with only a second on Ruberti. This meant that Ruberti took the win by half-a-second after the penalty was applied. Third was Bonanomi-(Sonvico).

Paolo Ruberti: "Things went fine, Mario had a great start and kept a good race pace until the driver's change when we had to serve the penalty. We got back on track more than 23 seconds behind the Audi but I believed in it and pushed hard until the end. Then a penalty was commissioned to our rivals, which was lucky, but we deserved the victory anyway".

Mario Cordoni: "Great victory, I enjoyed it very much. The start went well, I found a gap and I overtook Sonvico. This allowed Paolo to find some advantage on the other Audi. His recover was great and the good luck was on our side, which does no harm".
 
A good race, with a thrilling finale; how would Race 2 compare later that afternoon?
 
Race 2

At the green flag Ruberti kept the lead, despite the best efforts of Bonanomi.

Cicognani remained in third, while Coggiola was fourth and Geri fifth. The GT4 pack was, as in Race 1, as vital as...a Ginetta pack! Emiliani kept the first place from Cappelletti and Lasagni…and no spins!
 
As predicted, Ruberti was easing away at one second per lap…only to be stopped thanks to a clash between two Ginettas in the fast part of the track - Guazzini and Frazza had collided and ended their race deep in the sand trap, leading to the safety car being deployed. This pretty much decided the GT3 race, because at the restart Ruberti gained some advantage from Cordoni; just enough to prevent the charging back of the Audi. The GT4 battle was a one-man-show as Cappelletti, racing solo, won the race easily despite the time penalty at the mandatory pit stop, Emiliani-Saggese scoring well in second, while Lasagni-Foglio completed the podium.

The GT3 battle finished in a strange way, like in Race 1; where the first car taking the chequered flag was not the victorious one! Cordoni, after the pitstop, has his lead eaten second by second by Sonvico and, adding insult to injury, Cordoni picked up a penalty of 3.8 seconds for an irregular driver change.

When the last lap began, Cordoni was already behind in real time but not on track, and despite his best efforts crossed the line first but finished second by 2.2 seconds.

Marco Bonanomi: "A perfect race. Ruberti was pushing hard and so was Dindo, but it ended in the best way for us despite a difficult weekend as the track's features do not suit very well our R8. Now Imola and Mugello are due and there we will have the chance to have a saying but with such a tight classification it is going to be tough. Anyway, today Andrea and I proved we are there, we just have to keep going".

Andrea Sonvico: "What a great victory, I have to thank the whole team and Audi Sport Italia because I feel very well with them and with my team mate Marco. It has been a peculiar race, Marco pushed a lot and we were lucky with the safety car. I had to recover to Cordoni but the central mirror fell down and it kept rolling near the pedals. I have been lucky as it did not go in a dangerous position and I managed to recover narrowing the gap. Then, thanks also to the penalty given to the Porsche, we won. It is an important victory because we equalized Porsche and now we go to Imola motivated to do good things".
 
Despite the strange finish to the races, it was a good weekend - one victory each other for Porsche and Audi keeps the standings close. Bonanomi-Sonvico have 102 pts, but with the two-must-drop scores, they’ll have to drop lots of points, Cordoni (who will be partnered again with a different teammate later in the season) has 87, while Cicognani (again with a different teammate later in the season) has 77.

In GT2 the Coggiola brothers have 110 pts, from Rossetto-Geri’s 70. In GT4 Cappelletti has 84 from Lasagni-Emiliani with 64 and the absent at Magione Pozzi, 60.
 
Next round at Imola on July 17th.

Gabriele Tosi