Qualifying
Just a month after the series’ last visit to Imola, everything had changed at the top, with a very easy BMW 1-2 for Race 1; pole being set by Stefano Colombo more than a second clear of the second row.
Michela Cerruti also had a perfect lap and established herself second for a first row sweep for the Roal Motorsport team. Johan Kristoffersson did a very good job and put his Audi R8 third, while Giuseppe Cirò was fourth in the previously dominant Ferrari. The third row saw Giorgio Sanna in the lone Lamborghini and the title-contending Black Bull Ferrari of Tommaso Maino. Seventh was the second Audi of Andrea Sonvico and the last two cars in the GT3 field were the two Porsches, with Christian Passuti in front of Luigi Lucchini in the points-leading Ebi Motors Porsche. Clearly the 20 fewer kilograms now carried by the BMW wasn’t solely responsible for such a big gap in the front, so it looked like the Roal team had worked hard in August.
For Race 2 it was the same old story, with a monster lap by Mirko Venturi, clearly the fastest driver in the series.
But he was given a run for his money by Cerruti, who would start second by a mere 17 thousands of second. Third in another strong performance was the Lamborghini of Giacomo Barri, while fourth was the Audi of Alex Frassineti. The third row saw another disappointing performance by the Ebi Motors Porsche of Vito Postiglione, who found himself alongside the second BMW of Comandini, with Gabriele Lancieri, Dindo Capello and Marco Mapelli rounding out the GT3 grid.
Race 1
The sun was already shining at 9am at Imola for Race 1, with the conditions on track not much different than five weeks previously when the season went into its summer break. It seemed that BMW had done a perfect job over the summer, but the chronic lack of top speed could well be a problem at the start, since the rocketship-Ferrari would be starting behind the all-BMW first row. The time penalties to be served during the driver changes were as follows: Venturi-Maino with 25 seconds, Postiglione-Lucchini with 10 and Kristoffersson-Frassineti with five.
The dramas unfolded even before the start with the third-placed Kristoffersson suffering gearbox issues on the out lap. The Audi Sport Italia team managed to find the problem, but almost a lap was lost and all chance of a good finish had been thrown away.
The BMWs retained their 1-2 order at the start, while Cirò was able to squeeze into third. But at the Tamburello chicane, Sonvico tried a very optimistic move on Sanna sending both cars into the gravel. Sanna was able to rejoin the race, a good 40 seconds down, while Sonvico had to make a lengthy stop in the pits to cure the damage to the steering compartment. So the first three cars were now well clear of the rest of the field, with Maino fourth, Passuti fifth, Lucchini sixth. The Cup cars came next, with Luca Rangoni leading from Riccardo Bianco and Ivan Jacoma.
The first laps saw the BMW duo stretching their lead at a stellar pace – two to three seconds faster than anyone else – and only Cirò was able to contain the damage; but only in a minor way. Today the BMWs were the fastest cars of all,by a long margin. The focus switched to the battles outside of the podium positions, with Passuti pressing Maino hard. The pressure soon paid off for the Porsche side, with Maino spinning at the exit of the Variante Alta chicane and opening the door not only to Passuti but also to the Ebi Motors Porsche of Lucchini.
The BMWs extended their advantage beyond 20 seconds before the driver changes started. After they were completed, the leader was Comandini-(Colombo) from Michela Cerruti, Lancieri-(Cirò) keeping third and Mapelli-(Passuti) fourth. Fifth was a very angry Postiglione-(Lucchini) then, suffering from a “monster” time penalty, Venturi-(Maino), who soon overtook the recovering Audi of Frassineti-(Kristofferson).
The race was pretty much done, even with almost 20 minutes still to run. The BMWs were well over 20 seconds clear of the 458 Ferrari of Mancini, while a good battle began to develop between the two Porsches; but nothing really happened in GT3 before the chequered flag, which saluted perhaps the easiest 1-2 ever in the Italian series for the BMW. Colombo-Comandini scored good, hard points in order to keep the title changes alive, while Cerruti finally, after the bad luck of the first part of the season, found herself on the podium.
Mancini and Cirò again finished on the podium for the MP1 Corse team. Postiglione was unable to overtake Passuti, who finished fourth. Sixth was Venturi, then Frassineti, while the Black Beauty of Barri finished the race two laps down, still suffering from the bad move made by Sonvico (who finished six laps down) in the first corner.
The Cup class saw, yet again, a marvellous recovery drive by Fabio Babini, who overcame the full 30 seconds time penalty and overtook Bianco on the last lap for yet another win. The Lamborghini Gallardo experienced some problems and finished two laps down on the winner.
Race 2
After a pretty boring first race, there were lots of unknown for Race 2 at Imola in the late afternoon, with temperatures again – in this seemingly eternal summer of 2013 – almost at 30°. The top drivers would start, so we could expect the usual fireworks in the first laps. The time penalties were all spread out, with 15 seconds for Race 1 winners Comandini-Colombo, 10 for Michela Cerruti and Venturi-Maino, still “suffering” for the last round success, and five for Cirò-Mancini…so would it be time for Audi or Porsche to claim the top spot? Well, things definitely we’re going well for Audi this year, with technical trouble yet again meaning Kristoffersson and Frassineti wouldn’t be starting, leaving just eighth “healthy” GT3s on the grid.
The start was again a very “innovative” one, with almost four-cars-wide at the start finish line; but the stewards decided it was good to go and we were off!
Venturi wasted not a millisecond and turned into the first chicane first, but behind him it was completely chaos – Mancini clearly jumping the start before taking the inside line and finding himself alongside the Lamborghini of Barri, who got scared and moved into the centre of the track, where Postiglione decided to turn a little bit right, in order to prevent a huge shunt and ended up touching the BMW of Comandini! But amazingly everyone survived the first corners.
The order was: Venturi, from Cerruti, Mancini, Barri, Mapelli, Comandini, Postiglione and the lone remaining Audi of Capello. The big loser on the first lap was Postiglione, and things didn’t improve as – at the exit of the last corner, before the long straight – he found a good spot to go alongside Comandini, who decided to play dirty and pushed the Porsche onto the grass, almost a copy of the huge and unfortunate shunt of Marcel Tiemann two years previously at the same spot; but this time the Gods of racing simply pushed the Porsche back on track. But Postiglione was unaware of the “help”, kept his right foot planted to the floor, and outbraked the “dirty” BMW into the Tamburello chicane. The only problem for him was that the front grill was full of grass, but thankfully in a matter of corners “magically” all the green stuff disappeared and Vito was able to pursue the next car in front of him, the other Porsche of Mapelli who already was beginning to press Mancini.
The order changed shortly afterwards because Mapelli decided he’d had enough of the back bumper of the 458 of Mancini and outbraked the Ferrari at the Tosa curve. Mancini resisted hard, but compromised his exit speed and Postiglione needed no more invitation; Porsche 2, Ferrari 0. Correction, Ferrari -1, because Comandini also took advantage of the slowing Ferrari and went through. Could the Porsches now catch Barri, Cerruti and Maino? Maybe, but Mapelli was clearly not fast as the Ebi Motors Porsche of Postiglione and struggled to keep his position; so for now no assault on the podium places.
The hard-charging Postiglione finally got Mapelli, but only because the Antonelli Porsche slowed dramatically; a prelude to retirement with gearbox failure. Venturi was now almost 10 seconds ahead of Cerruti, with now Postiglione third, Mancini fourth, Comandini fifth and Capello sixth, in a very depressing weekend for Audi.
The driver changes had little effect on the standings as Maino-(Venturi) still led from Lucchini-(Postiglione), with a very slim margin to Michela Cerruti. Fourth was Sanna-(Barri) in the black Lambo, then Sonvico-(Capello), followed closely by Cirò-(Mancini). Colombo-(Comandini) was the last running car in the GT3 class.
The order soon changed upfront when Lucchini made a mistake and straight-lined the Tamburello chicane, losing second place to Michela. On the next lap, Sonvico rapidly reached the back of the Lambo and overtook Sanna, who was now struggling badly and losing more places to Cirò and Colombo. Trouble ahead? Alas, yes, the good weekend of the Lamborghini turning into a very bad one with Barri retiring at the top of the Piratella curve with a technical failure.
Now the hard and dirty stuff began (by the way- there was no penalty to Comandini for the move on Postiglione in the first half of the race…). Cirò got alongside Sonvico, who decided simply to push the red 458 onto the grass. Amazingly, Cirò avoided a huge shunt and continued, but Colombo was now in front of the MP1 car; but the Audi was clearly struggling with an unspecified problem.
But the fireworks were not over since the TV cameras showed another BMW now in the lead! Cerruti had overtaken Maino with the Black Bull car struggling not only to keep in touch with Michela but also slowing every lap – could this be brake problems? Would the car make it to the end? We had no time to think about it, because Sonvico was now out of grip and lost the spot to Colombo, but at the exit of the Tamburello chicane decided to push (again) the second BMW on to the grass (with some contact)…and yet again the Gods of racing playing safe and kept Colombo out of the wall. But two laps later, with the radiators now full of grass, the engine of the BMW had had enough and the Race 1 winners were out of the race. This time a 25 second penalty was handed to Sonvico, but a black flag would have been more appropriate for two very dirty moves executed in pure (bad) BTCC style.
Upfront the time expired and Michela Cerruti won a race full of dramas, while Maino was able to keep second from a hard charging Lucchini for a podium full of good and clean young faces.
Cirò finished fourth and the “guilty” Sonvico finished fifth. Colombo would still be classified sixth in class and Barri seventh.
The Cup Class saw again a Babini-Bianco victory (almost champions now, with a 40+ points lead).
Rangoni-Galbiati finished second and the newcomer Lamborghini of Piancastelli-Durante scored the first podium for a non-Porsche car.
So BMW came back from the dead and scored well, while Ferrari threw away a good chance to escape in the lead. Porsche, despite the BOP, was still leading the standings, while the Audis were now out of the title running; mostly because of the BOP, but also for the bad driving of Sonvico (and this is not the first time). Lamborghini improved, but not by enough to challenge for the victories.
Results:
Race 1 – here
Race 2 – here
Next up is Vallelunga, on September 14/15.
Gabriele Tosi (all images www.acisportitalia.it)
