Daniele Di Amato will be on pole position for this afternoon’s International GT Open race, having topped the timing sheets for much of the 30-minute session in the #11 RS Racing Ferrari 488 GT3.
In the early minutes of the session, Di Amato was the only driver to set a quick lap time, a 1:47.193 was enough to be clear of the field by well over a quarter of a second; a large margin given the Monza layout’s propensity for delivering close qualifying sessions.
The pattern of the session was knocked awry by a spin from Alan Hellmeister in the #16 Drivex Mercedes. The Brazilian driver met the barriers at Ascari, and would attempt to get the car home, before pulling over on the approach to the Parabolica.
A brief red flag halted the session while the Mercedes was moved out of what was deemed to be a hazardous position, and on-track action began once more with just over 20 minutes of the session left to run.
After a few unsuccessful runs for some of GT Open’s usual suspects such as Giovanni Venturini (#63 Imperiale Lamborghini) and Luzich Racing’s Mikkel Mac, times started to drop with just seven minutes to go.
Mac put in the best lap for the #51 Ferrari thus far, a 1:47.552, to lower the gap between Di Amato and the chasing pack, and Bertrand Baguette (#8 Honda Racing Team JAS NSX) would better Mac’s time just a few seconds later.
However, of the quick-fire laps that came within about 30 seconds of one another, none made a bigger impact than that of Giovanni Venturini, a 1:47.146 put the #63 Imperiale entry to the top, and the Italian’s pace took a seemingly insurmountable leap with a 1:46.785 next time by.
However, Di Amato’s next lap was matching Venturini’s flyer through the first two sectors, with the RS Racing Ferrari driver Di Amato crossing the line for a 1:46.780, just five thousandths of a second clear of Venturini.
Ultimately those would be the final flying laps for the top two.
Behind Di Amato and Venturini on this afternoon’s grid will be the #25 Imperiale Lamborghini of Riccardo Agostini, and the similar #12 Ombra Racing Huracan driven by Damiano Fioravanti. The #3 Teo Martin BMW of Lourenço Beirão da Veiga will line up fifth, alongside Tom Onslow-Cole in the PRO-AM leading #20 SPS Automotive Mercedes.
The guest, quasi-factory #8 NSX GT3 from Honda’s JAS Racing outfit will line up eighth, while AM pole was set by the #9 ARC Bratislava Lamborghini, driven by Miro Konôpka’s latest teammate, fellow Slovak Zdeno Mikulasko.
This afternoon’s 70-minute race is set to begin at 15:45 local time (CEST).
