Argentine pairing Emiliano Lopez and Matthias Russo (Baporo Motorsport Ferrari) won the weekend’s second International GT Open race at Estoril, Portugal on Sunday, with a close fight behind them for positions two through six.
Away from the start, polesitter Alessandro Balzan had held his pole position in the Villorba Corse Ferrari with ease, while Alvare Parente successfully defended second in the Teo Martin McLaren. But behind them, AF Corse’s Michele Rugolo (below) moved ahead of Lamborghini man Alvaro Barba into third.
The closest battle on track in the early stages was between Lopez and fellow Ferrari pilot Shaun Balfe for sixth, with race-one winner Ezequiel Perez-Companc (AF Corse Ferrari) holding fourth some distance ahead. Balfe eventually took sixth on lap three, leaving Lopez to head up the fight for seventh, which comprised Felipe Barreiros, Ilya Melnikov in more Ferraris and Joel Camathias in the Novadriver Audi.
Up front, Parente (above) stayed in touch with Balzan without really harrying him, while a little further back, Barba kept Rugolo honest. However, Balzan had a mechanical issue on lap eight that forced him first to concede the lead to Parente and then make an unscheduled stop outside the pit window.
The now sixth-place squabble comprising Lopez and his pursuers continued right up to the pit window, with Barreiros almost getting past at T1 on lap nine, but the positions eventually remaining unchanged as the pit window approached.
Just before the window opened, however, Barba managed to bury his Lamborghini in the gravel, bringing out the safety car (an old Ford Mondeo estate!) and delaying the start of the pit stops. This demolished the 30-second lead Parente had managed to eke out on the rest of the field. Behind him, the order was Rugolo, Companc, Balfe, Lopez, Barreios, Melnikov and Camathias.
The race restarted with 30 minutes to go, and Parente benefitted from the cushion of lapped cars on the restart, gaining almost the length of the pit strait on his pursuers. The pit window opened immediately at the green flag, but most of the front-runners elected to stay out for at least a lap longer, with Balfe handing over to Keen, Camathias handing to Cesar Campanico and Raffaele Giammaria taking over from Companc in Saturday’s race-winning car.
As expected, Parente and Rugolo stayed out until the last possible moment before handing over to their respective co-drivers Miguel Ramos and Pasin Lathouras. Meanwhile, Barreiros’ co-driver Guedes had to come back in for a second stop due to a right-rear tyre issue. Elsewhere, Russo set about attacking Lathouras for what had become the lead of the race due to the Parente/Ramos McLaren having a longer pit handicap.
A slight mistake after a lap of fierce battling saw Russo slip through into the lead ahead of the Thai driver, with Keen now in third, Campanico fourth, Antonio Coimbra’s Mercedes SLS fifth, Ramos sixth and Giammaria (below) seventh. The latter pair were soon running nose-to-tail on track.
Russo managed to build himself a cushion as the race approached its final 10 minutes, but Lathouras, Keen and Campanico were running right together in second, third and fourth. The Ramos/Giammaria battle was also reeling in fifth-place man Coimbra.
Ramos found a way past the local Mercedes driver without much fuss, dropping Coimbra down to sixth, which became seventh a short while later when Giammaria too powered past. Ramos continued fighting as the clock wound down, but couldn’t make anything stick in the remaining time.
Russo had a serene stint at the front of the field and brought the Baporo Ferrari home safely to take the win. Second to sixth crossed the line in a train, with Lathouras finishing ahead of Keen, Campanico, Ramos and Giammaria.
Stephen Errity
