SMP Racing Ferrari pair Daniel Zampieri and Roman Mavlanov claimed their second International GT Open win of the season at Sunday’s Silverstone race, held in warm and dry weather.
Polesitter Aditya Patel in the Novardriver Audi was swamped at the start, and it was Italian duo Matteo Beretta (Autorlando Porsche) and Niccolo Schiro (Villorba Ferrari) that headed the field as it made its way through the first few corners.
Further down the field, sixth-place qualifier Nicky Pastorelli was squeezed out and spun the #2 Corvette at Copse, hitting the barriers and retiring straight away. Gianluca Roda in the #56 AF Corse Ferrari also had a torrid first lap, spinning at the entry to Maggots-Becketts and dropping to the back of the field.
Federico Leo in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari held third after the first lap, but a mistake through Village saw him lose three places and drop to sixth behind Alavaro Barba in the #63 Ombra Ferrari, Zampieri and Jody Fannin in the TF Racing Aston Martin. Barba didn’t last long in third, however, going off into the gravel at Brooklands before rejoining in 11th, then pitting with race-ending damage to his car.
Patel was down in sixth after his poor start, but while seventh-place Daniel Keilwitz (#99 Corvette) quickly dropped down the order with an apparent mechanical issue, Francesco Pastorelli in the #4 V8 Racing Corvette was soon on Patel’s bumper.
Isaac Tutumlu in the #6 SRT Corvette saw an opportunity, however, and squeezed past Pastorelli through Vale while the latter was trying to pass Patel. Pastorelli then spun after clouting the inside kerb at Club too heavily while attempting to repass Tutumlu. Tutumlu himself would go on to pass Patel for sixth overall later in the stint.
Up front, leader Beretta was coming under pressure from Schirro as the Autorlando Porsche’s tyres started to go off, while third-place Fannin was the fastest man on track at this point. The young Aston driver moved into second with a nice move on the entry to Maggots, then Zampieri began exerting major pressure on Schirro, having a look on the way into Abbey.
While Schiro defended from Zampieri, Fannin closed up on Beretta and made a straightforward pass for the race lead into Stowe on lap seven. On the same tour, Zampieri took third from Schirro through Copse. A recovering Leo was next to attack Schirro, while Zampieri streaked away and passed Beretta for second on the way out of Chapel on lap nine. “On the first few laps, I think I was the fastest on track,” explained Beretta afterwards, “but I lost a bit of confidence in the tyres. We were still leading the GTS class, so it was okay.”
Beretta fell back towards the Schirro/Leo battle, which was resolved in favour of Leo on lap 11 when he got through at Stowe to take fourth. Fannin, Schirro, Patel and most of the rest of the field stopped as soon as the pit window opened. The only cars to stay out longer were Zampieri in the #60 Ferrari, Beretta in the #13 Porsche, Leo in the #55 Ferrari and Tutumlu in the #6 Corvette.
Leo and Beretta was now the battle to watch on track, while elsewhere, Maxime Soulet made a too-hasty exit from the pits in the #4 Corvette started by Francesco Pastorelli, earning a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding that dropped the car out of contention.
Zampieri stayed out until the last possible second before handing the #60 Ferrari to Mavlanov. The duo had shed pit-penalty time due to their puncture in Saturday’s race, so Mavlanov emerged with a healthy lead over Beretta’s co-driver Camathias in the #13 Porsche and Claudio Sdanewitsch in the #55 Ferrari started by Leo.
“We decided to stay out very late, as the car and tyres were working very well and we wanted to build up a big gap on the Aston,” said Zampieri after the race. “We were really close to missing the end of the pit window but sometimes you need to take a risk, no?” he smiled.
Saturday race winner Darren Turner took over from Fannin and rejoined in sixth, but it wasn’t long before he was past Joan Vinyes in the #61 SMP Ferrari (started by Jose Maria Perez-Aicart) and Archie Hamilton in the #6 Corvette started by Tutumlu. Those cars gained another place as gentleman driver Sdanewitschz went backwards in the #55.
On board the Villorba Corse Ferrari, Andrea Montermini was busy making up the places lost by Schirro in the first stint, getting ahead of Patel’s Novadriver Audi for sixth. He made no further progress during the race, however, coming home sixth overall and just off the Super GT class podium.
Turner, meanwhile, passed Aicart for third, then snuck past Hamilton through Village to move into second on lap 22. At this point, Mavlanov was 18 seconds up the road and there were only 11 minutes of racing remaining, so Turner elected to back off and bring the car home in a strong second place. The closing laps of the race were largely uneventful and Mavlanov eventually finished 18 seconds ahead of Turner, who was himself nine seconds ahead of third-place Hamilton at the flag.
Turner said afterwards: “I’m pretty happy with second, as we had 35 seconds extra to serve in the pits compared to the winner, which was always going to be a big ask to make up. Jody did a great job working his way up to the front from fifth, which was exactly what we needed. It didn’t really cost me any time getting by cars in my stint, but Mavlanov had really good pace and there was no chance of closing the gap unless they made a massive mistake, so I just consolidated P2 really.”
Fannin added: “Being on the inside at the start really helped, as there was a bit of carnage on the outside. I had to wait a couple of laps for the front tyres to come in, but from then on I just reeled people in and got past into the lead. I did steady laps and managed to build a bit of a cushion. A lapped Porsche got in the way on my in-lap and made things slightly interesting, but overall it was really good.”
Third-place Hamilton was happy to mark his arrival at the SRT Corvette team with a podium. “Issac [Tutumulu] got his head down and didn’t take any risks before handing it to me,” he said. “We were on new tyres for Saturday’s race, so it wasn’t easy to fight other cars today on old rubber. I’m delighted to be on the podium at my home race.”
The top three finishers all came from the Super GT class, so the second-tier GTS category was won by Perez-Aicart and Vinyes in the #61 SMP Ferrari, ahead of Saturday winners Beretta and Camathias in the Autorlando Porsche. Campanico held on for third in class for himself and Patel in the Novadriver Audi.
Pastorelli’s first-corner crash was bad news for his and Ramos’ title challenge, as Villorba Ferrari’s Schirro and Montermini are still just three points behind their total of 135 at the top of the standings. Zampieri and Mavlanov’s win puts them on 124 points in third, moving ahead of Maxime Soulet on 116 in fourth
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Images: FOTOSPEEDY
