Italian GT, Monza – Race Reports
Bonanomi, Sanna-Stancheris And Cappelletti Are The Champions

Race 1

A beautiful autumn morning welcomed the cars of the Italian GT Championship for their penultimate race of the year – possibly, in some categories, a title-clinching one. It was quite cool, with the ambient temperature barely above 10°C and the tarmac...well, not much more. The 430 GT2 was a non starter due to the three shunts in free practice and qualifying, so the field was down to 33.

GT3

At the start (a clean one) it was all Audi at the front, with Sonvico in front of Albuquerque.

Ruberti was still third, and then came the 458 of Cioci, the Corvette of Di Benedetto and Amos in the Reiter Gallardo; so it was status quo for the first lap. The two Audis couldn't escape from Ruberti and lap after lap it was only a matter of time as to when the Autorlando car would make the move...and on Lap 6 Ruberti moved himself into second overall by outbraking Albuquerque. Amos was now fourth, but still not too far down on the top three. Cioci was fifth and the Vette, clearly not off the pace, was sixth.

Ruberti was not happy with second and made another move on Sonvico to become the new leader, but he had to put the pedal to the metal before handing over his car to Cordoni, who is not as fast as the second drivers of the Audi; could he do it? Apparently so - on the first "free air" lap he clocked a lap one second better than the two Audis.

The other three cars of Amos, Cioci and Di Benedetto were almost ten seconds down on the title contenders, but the 30 extra seconds to serve at the stops for the top three would likely turn the order upside down.

So it went, and after the pit stop Peter Kox was leading the class and beginning to smash lap records on every lap (his best being almost eight-tenths quicker than everyone else).

Cordoni was second, but he had a slim margin over the two Audis of Bonanomi-(Albuquerque) and Capello-(Sonvico), while Merendino-(Di Benedetto) and Baso-(Cioci) were too far down...for now.

Cordoni tried his best, but couldn't keep the Audis behind him - first Bonanomi, and later Capello, overtook the Autorlando Porsche, and also ended any remaining title ambitions. At the front, no one would catch Kox, who made the most of a perfect strategy from Hans Reiter, backed up by no errors from his teammate Amos and a perfectly setup car, to declare "veni vidi vici". Bonanomi score a very good second place and now had the advantage on Sonvico for the title. Sonvico couldn’t keep the Corvette of Merendino behind him and the American machine finished third. Cordoni finished only fifth in class, in front of Baso and his 458 GT3.

So the title would definitely be going to Ingolstadt, but we’d have to wait for Race 2 to see which of Bonanomi or Sonvico would claim it.

GT Cup 

The "bull pack" made no room for the Porsches, so Stancheris kept the lead from Iacone, Seveso, Piccini and Carboni; meaning all the Lamborghinis were in the top places.

It wouldn't be a Porsche day, with Fornaroli down in the lower places and struggling with a monster understeer, while Passuti tangled with Kruglyk; launching his Porsche with the right rear about half a meter in the air but managing to continue. The Gallardos made a solid wall and none of the Porsches could pass the Sant'Agata supercars, even though they were a little bit slower in the corners.

Stancheris was still in front, followed closely by his teammate Iacone.

Third was yet another teammate, Carboni, but he was being pressed hard by Livio, who was taking it easy as he and Piccini had no extra time to serve at the stop. Slowly but surely, Passuti was able to close the gap to the Lambos, but could find no space to overtake any of the Gallardos. Fornaroli was still very much down the order.

After the pit stop the new leader, as expected, was Piccini-(Livio), with Baccani-(Passuti) now second; both of them having had no time penalty to worry about.

Third was Sanna-(Stancheris), who had quite a scare when his teammate Babini-(Iacone) outbraked himself badly into the first chicane and almost caused a million-euro shunt; but fortunately he was able to squeeze into the escape road and continue.

Behind him there were two Gallardos again, Barri-(Seveso) and Ragazzi-(Carboni). The final part of the race saw the Gallardos - all of them - slowing with tyre and brake problems (as expected with all the ballast they had to carry). The Babini car was the most troubled and finished well down the order, not helped by the typical right-rear puncture at Monza on the penultimate lap.

Livio, however, was able to cross the line first and kept his title hopes alive.

Passuti finished second after a very hard-charging second part of the race, but it wasn't enough to keep his hopes alive - he needed to have won and basically seen the two Gallardos of Piccini and Sanna scoring zero for that to have happened. Third, fourth and fifth came the Imperiale Racing Gallardos of Carboni, Sanna and Barri. Fornaroli finished sixth in class, meaning he also couldn't fight for the Championship in the last race.

GT2

Caccia, in the Autorlando RSR Porsche, was able to keep the lead from Coggiola and a rather distant Radaelli; who didn't do himself any favours by spinning out of the Variante Ascari after a frightening moment, but was able to continue.

Caccia meanwhile was able to put some distance between himself and Coggiola in the first part of the race, but made a bad mistake at the Ascari chicane, spinning and losing a ton of time. He could continue, but now found himself back with the 458 of the slower Radaelli.

Due to the 30 seconds extra stop for the Coggiola brothers, and the bad mistake by Caccia, the 458 of Gai-(Radaelli) was safely in the lead of the class after the stops and wouldn't look back until the chequered flag.

In the meantime Coggiola was able to gain back all of the time lost in the pit stop on Garofano-(Caccia), but he couldn't make a move so the GT2 order was Ferrari, Porsche, Porsche.

GT4

The star drivers, Rangoni and Postiglione, were battling each other hard in the early stages, while Belicchi was also on fire; and these three were miles in front of the "normal" pack. It was hard to count the overtaking moves between the title contenders, and really the order changed several times on every lap – a great piece of action...but the top three were now fifteen seconds clear of the pack.

Rangoni lead the class at the pit stop, handing over to Ponti. Postiglione gave his Ginetta to Gioia, but he soon began to lose places and somewhere, unseen by the TV and the media, hit problems that led to his finishing the race four laps down. Belicchi did his usual masterful job, but his teammate Rayneri was desperately slow and finished a lap down on the overall winner. Ponti was able to keep the lead and win the class in his "wild card" Ginetta, while the second car home (mostly thanks to having no time penalty to serve) was the Cayman of Donaviti-Brambati. Third were Cappelletti & Milani, while the other title contenders, Lasagni-Foglio, ended their race in the gravel.

Race 2

The final race of the 2011 Italian GT Championship started under a warm sun after the almost freezing morning, so perfect weather and perfect track conditions, despite lots of crashes in the support races.

GT3

The start was again a good and clean one, with Kox keeping the first place, but the two Audis were battling very hard with Capello now second after overtaking Bonanomi at the Roggia chicane. Cordoni was still fourth in class and keeping up with the big boys, while behind him there were big problems for the Vette of Merendino; the car seemingly running on seven cylinders, rather than the usual eight. A lap was lost in the attempt to overcome the problem, and any changes of victory too.

Kox was consistently gaining tenths with every lap and his advantage soon grew beyond five seconds. The two title-contending Audis continued to battle each other hard, mixed with the GT2 458 Italia of Gai. Cordoni was doing his best to keep up with the leaders, but his level was not as good as the 2010 Champion Roda - he had had a very good Championship, though, and the Autorlando team should be very happy. They hadn’t managed the title “three-peat”, but for next year will be much better.

Capello and Bonanomi took the gloves off and the latter tried a move on Dindo at the Roggia, with a little bit of contact occurring. Dindo had to choose either to cut the chicane or make room; he choose the second option but he was now third.

Kox was about ten seconds in front of the battling Audi-duo and began to slow down…but only a little, in order to give to Amos the car in perfect conditions for the second stint of the race.

As the pit stop window opened, Capello was losing time on Bonanomi. All weekend it seemed that the Audi of Dindo and Sonvico couldn’t match the times of the Bonanomi-Albuquerque one. We almost lost track of the other GT3 car, the 458 Of Baso-Cioci. Baso started the race, but his pace was much slower even than Cordoni, and despite all Cioci’s efforts there wasn’t enough time to overcome the gap.

After the pit stop, Amos was still leading with a very safe margin from Albuquerque. Sonvico was third and trying desperately to gain ground on the other Audi, but with no major success. Ruberti, after taking the wheel of his Porsche from Cordoni, begin his usual charge, but couldn’t improve from the fourth overall place.

The final minutes of the race were uneventful, with a second victory in a row going to the newcomer Reiter Engineering Lamborghini. Albuquerque finished second, giving the title to Bonanomi (soon official Audi R18 drivers?) Third was Sonvico – he’d given his best all year, but in the end finished second in the points standing. Cioci in the 458 made ground on the top cars, but a penalty for an irregular pitstop ruined his changes. It was a huge weekend for the VW group, taking two titles in two classes.

GT Cup

Babini led the group of Cup cars into the first chicane, with behind him the usual pack of Gallardos - Piccini second, Sanna third, Mastronardi fourth for Porsche then the other two Team Imperiale Gallardos. Apart from Babini, who apparently unleashed the “boost power”, Piccini, Mastronardi, Stancheris, Carboni and Seveso were very closely grouped.

The battle behind the leader was a ferocious one, with Mastronardi trying every trick to overtake Sanna, but on the straight there was seemingly nothing he could do to the “black Bull” of Sant’Agata. But after trying for several laps he finally made the move stick, and now the Porsche went after the second Gallardo of Piccini. What about Babini? Apparently the “secret weapon unleashed for race two” was still doing fine - he had now in excess of eight seconds from Piccini, Mastronardi and Sanna.

There was a big moment in the first chicane when Basov outbraked himself and crashed into Baccani, leaving the Antonelli Porsche without the left side door, but both of the cars surprisingly could continue. Somehow Sanna regained second place on Mastronardi, but the big news was that Piccini, in a two laps span, had lost about four seconds; troubles ahead?

The pitstops saw no dramas and Iacone-(Babini) still led from Livio-(Piccini), Stancheris-(Sanna), Fornaroli-(Mastronardi), Carboni and Barri. The real battle was behind Iacone, with Livio clearly struggling for grip and Stancheris now in full attack-mode. Livio was closing every possible door, sometimes with full blocking moves, but with no contact…for now - because Stancheris decided that enough was enough and simply pushed Livio at the Parabolica causing a spin for the white Lambo. A penalty would surely follow, and this was definitely not a clean way to win the title.

But, as always, the dramas were not over - just seconds later Iacone slowed dramatically at the exit of the first chicane. The race was over for him, but - guess what? - Fornaroli in his Porsche was now third in class; and, with the pending penalty for Stancheris and the struggling Livio, it looked like he could easily win the race. Just before the final minutes, lots of penalties had been given to most of the GT Cup cars; the most obvious one being 25 seconds for Stancheris, but also 13 for Livio for a pitstop irregularity.

Nothing would change the standings because, as predicted, Fornaroli-Mastronardi won the race, even though they crossed the line in second. Sanna-Stancheris finished second, thanks to the penalty, but clinched the title - but the Stancheris move was not a very good one. Third, fourth and fifth went to other Gallardos, but Livio could only finish fifth, thanks to the penalty and his rather sick car.

GT2

Gai led the class in his 458 and had a good margin over the 2011 champions, Coggiola and Garofano, in the Autorlando RSR. The two “old” RSRs had a good battle – sometimes a little bit over the limit – but no major incidents occurred. Gai was thirty seconds in front of the two Porsches after only 15 minutes of racing, while Coggiola managed to pull clear of Garofano and establish a safe second position. The pit stop didn’t shake the order, Radaelli-(Gai) keeping the lead and easily winning the race after both Porsches retired in the second half of the race. But the Coggiola brothers won the title, basically with no other competitor, but the absent are always wrong.

GT4

Cressoni emerged from the first chicane ahead of the pack, with Milani second, then Ponti and Necchi. Two laps in and Donaviti in the Cayman made contact with the Ginettas of Ragozzino and Scarpaccio…hard enough for all three to end their races within a lap. Somehow, Carpaccio managed to continue, only to have a huge moment at the Ascari chicane - crossing the gravel trap at speed and finishing across the track, miraculously without touching any of the other GT4 pack. This time his race was done, for real. Malavasi destroyed the undertray of his Ginetta and retired from the race after hitting the left door of the Baccani Porsche.

Unseen by the live TV and most of the spectators, the GT4 battle was as exciting as in the big class. After the pit stop Rangoni-(Ponti) grabbed the lead and Luca did his usual job with blazing speed, flying away and never looking back. Necchi-Piron finished second, followed by Saggese-Quaderno, Zanin-Baldan and Lasagni-Foglio. Cappelletti-Milani originally finished third, but picked up a 30 second time penalty during the pitstop. Cappelletti still managed to take the title by some points from Lasagni-Foglio.

Gabriele Tosi