The TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Euan Hankey and Salih Yoluc took early control of the inaugural Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup race at Imola, and claimed victory by 16.7 seconds ahead of the FFF Racing Team McLaren 650S GT3.
At the start of the race, the pole-sitting BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 458 of Luigi Lucchini had its chances of victory cut short. Egidio Pafetti in the Menthos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R ran side by side with the Ferrari going into the Variante Tamburello chicane, and hit the kerb on the outside, clashing with the 458 on the exit, sending Lucchini into the gravel and the Porsche to the back of the field.
The Menthos car later retired and the BMS Ferrari ran the remainder of the race a lap down. It did though, finish sixth after getting past the FF Corse 488 of Ivor Dunbar and Jonny Mowlem in the first hour and then the delayed Villorba Corse 458 and #71 AF Corse 488 with 15 minutes to run.
The incident resulted in the TF Sport Aston Martin of Turk Salih Yoluc taking the lead of the race, with the FFF McLaren of Hiroshi Hamaguchi providing pressure from behind in second. It developed into a three-way scrap at times, with the #26 Classic & Modern Ferrari of Nicolas Misslin in the mirrors of the 650S GT3.
Lap after lap Yoluc was forced to defend hard against Hamaguchi, before pulling away late in his first stint and creating a gap of about three seconds before pitting to hand over to Hankey.
Behind the fourth place #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Mads Rasmussen, the battle for fifth was hotly contested in the first hour. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Thomas Flohr, Scuderia Villorba Corse 458 of Cédric Mezard and Tockwith Motorsports Audi R8 LMS of Phillip Hanson all ran together for the first 55 minutes of the race.
Flohr defended masterfully from Mezard who was forced to push hard to create chances to get by, occasionally having to look in his mirrors at Hanson. In the end though, the trio would reach the pit window in the same position.
After the field made their trips to the pits the TF Aston led the race by 12 seconds; the British GT squad’s crew managing a much quicker stop than the FFF McLaren. From then on Hankey pulled away from Quaife-Hobbs bit by bit in the final hour before taking the checkered flag.
Behind, the #71 AF Ferrari, which was running fourth, slipped back. The #71 car is the only entry with two bronze drivers, so naturally Felipe Barreiros couldn’t match the pace of the pro drivers who had climbed aboard for the second hour. He quickly slipped back to seventh, getting passed by Francesco Castellacci’s AF Corse 488 and Nigel Moore’s Tockwith Audi that would go on to finish fourth and fifth in the spread out field, and later the #7 BMS Scuderia and #8 Villorba Corse Ferraris, leaving the car eighth.
Next up on the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup calendar is The Road To Le Mans race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, that’s run with LMP3 cars in the build up to the Le Mans 24 Hours on the 18th of June.
