Kessel Racing has taken its first ever victory in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza this afternoon. The #44 Ferrari 458 Italia of the Swiss team finished over 18 seconds ahead of the ART Grand Prix McLaren. Gulf Racing took third place after passing the #13 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi on the last lap.
Alexey Basov was the starting driver in the pole-sitting #70 SMP Racing Ferrari but he didn’t have the pace that Alessandro Pier Guidi had in qualifying. Philipp Eng and Alex Buncombe were on the pace immediately, quickly passed Basov and were first and second into the Variante del Rettifilo, fighting for the lead of the race.
Behind them the field moved into each other and there was some contact, parts flying over the track and several cars continuing with damage. As Eng and Buncombe pulled away from the field rapidly – they were already 7.8s clear of Basov after just 10 minutes – there were multiple contacts throughout the rest of the field and the marshals at the Parabolica had their hands full trying to get cars back on track.
Nissan GT Academy Team RJN’s Buncombe then attacked Eng into turn 1, but he outbraked himself and Eng moved back into the lead. Less than a minute later and not even 20 minutes into the race Prospeed’s Marc Hennerici went off into the gravel at the same place after suffering a suspension problem. The #75 Porsche was retired on the spot. Local yellows were shown and the battle for the lead continued, with Buncombe passing Eng to take the lead a couple of minutes later.
After 40 minutes Buncombe was leading Eng by 3 seconds, with Antoine Leclerc (#11 McLaren), Davide Rigon (#44 Ferrari) and Rob Bell (#69 McLaren) some 12 seconds behind the leading Nissan. Hexis Racing meanwhile suffered an engine problem and Alvaro Parente was unable to maintain his position.
The pit stops showed that having 60 cars could cause serious problems. Cars were boxed in and valuable time was lost. Taking over from Buncombe, Lucas Ordonez rejoined in fifth place – still leading the Pro-Am class – and when all teams had completed their first stop it was a battle for the lead between the #44 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Cesar Ramos and the #69 Gulf Racing McLaren of Nico Verdonck.
As soon as Ramos had passed Verdonck for the lead the Ferrari pulled away. He increased his lead to almost seven seconds, with Mike Parisy (#11 McLaren) in third place at almost 20 seconds from the leader.
But then Stefano Colombo spun the #27 Vita4one Racing Team BMW in the Parabolica and stalled the car on the inside of the corner. Marshals tried to push him back on the track, straight onto the racing line. It seemed to take them forever and just when race control decided to deploy the safety car the BMW drove off. What followed was a rather strange and brief safety car period in which Parisy gained 14 seconds, closing the gap to the leader to just 6 seconds.
The safety car had only just come in when it was deployed again as Andy Meyrick crashed the #9 Gulf Racing McLaren into the barriers coming out of the Ascari. Behind the safety car the gaps between drivers were reduced, but fortunately for Ramos he had a two-car buffer between himself and Verdonck.
With just over an hour to go Yelmer Buurman returned the #3 BMW to the pit with a right rear puncture and Maxime Martin took over. Unfortunately he couldn’t bring a change of fortune for Marc VDS Racing Team at Monza.
Ramos pulled away at the front and it became clear that the #44 Kessel Racing Ferrari could not be caught by anyone else. The race didn’t lose any of its excitement though as the battle for second heated up with Parisy closing the gap to Verdonck, despite nearly being pushed out of the race by the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari.
The next round of pit stops saw more chaos in the pits. Cars were boxed in again, pit crews pushed cars around and there was even contact when the #55 MTECH Ferrari came in and hit the crew of the #80 Young Driver AMR Aston.
As the top six pitted the #35 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R had a problem and Steve Doherty left the pit outside the top 10. At the front Zampieri had taken over from Ramos and maintained the lead for Kessel Racing. Behind him it was Andy Soucek (#11) vs Edward Sandstrom (#13) for second position, 21 seconds behind the leader. Soucek passed Sandstrom as the Swedish driver ran wide coming out of the second Lesmo.
Like Zampieri Soucek pulled away from his opponents and the battle for second became a battle for third between Sandstrom and Adam Carroll. Andrea Bertolini was in fifth and closing in on Sandstrom and Carroll. The fight lasted for laps and the three drivers used every inch of asphalt in an attempt to win or defend a position.
Carroll ran wide at the Ascari, getting two wheels airborne, but he managed to keep his car in front of the Ferrari. In fact his next move was an attempt to overtake the Audi, but despite going side by side from Parabolica to the Rettifilo the Audi driver kept in front. Bertolini backed out of the fight after yet another unnecessary move by one of the SMP Ferrari drivers.
Zampieri went on to win for Kessel Racing, followed home by Andy Soucke in the ART Grand Prix McLaren. Behind them the fight between Carroll and Sandstrom went all the way to the finish. Carroll managed to get his McLaren next to the WRT Audi and as they reached the finish line the McLaren was 0.028s ahead of the Audi.
AF Corse finished in fifth place, first in Pro-Am, ahead of the TDS Racing BMW of Hassid and Badey and the Black Falcon Mercedes of Hummel, Jans and Christodoulou. Winner in the Gentlemen Trophy was the SOFREV ASP Ferrari of Blanchemain, Beaubelique and Goueslard.
The next round of the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series will be held at Silverstone. Let’s hope for the same weather we had here in Monza this weekend.
MtC
