Vincent Abril and Nicola Marinangeli took an authoritative second win of the season in Race 2 in Barcelona, after dominating from lights to flag in their Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 that started from pole. Confirming the positive trend of recent rounds, the pair is now third in the overall standings, only 12 points from the two top contenders so far, who are now tied at 100 points, as Simon Reicher-Christopher Haase (Eastalent Racing Audi) finished third right ahead Alessio Deledda in the Oregon Team Lamborghini shared with Jordan Pepper.
“After a slow start of the season, we now have found the right performance level, thanks to a fantastic team, and we will go to Monza to fight for the championship”, said Abril and Marinangeli in sync.
Second today after a great race were Lukas Dunner and Julian Hanses in the Motopark Mercedes, which was fighting for the win up to the end of the race, which actually came some few laps earlier as the safety car was deployed following the crash of the #25 AF Crse Ferrari.
After yesterday’s maiden overall win, Car Collection took maiden win in Pro-Am thanks to ‘Hash’ and Alex Fontana, ahead of Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz (Olimp Racing Audi) and Marcelo Hahn-Allam Khodair (AF Corse Ferrari).
In Am, Kiki San Nana and Adam Osieka in the GetSpeed Mercedes took their fourth win of the season, ahead of Giuseppe Cipriani (Il Barone rampante Lambo), who virtually but not mathematically secured the title, with Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski (Olimp Racing Ferrari) finishing third.
Vincent Abril was the hero of qualifying, clinching a much-awaited pole and setting the GT3 lap record for the track (1.38.730), thus becoming the eleventh different poleman this year.
The Frenchman kept the advantage at the start ahead of Pepper and Haase, who later swopped positions. The first lap also saw a contact between M.Pulcini and Mardini, with both being forced to retirement in the box. And there was no better luck for the Lamborghini of Di Folco, who started last after having to change the engine but he suffered more technical problemsand was out too.
The first stint was relatively quiet with gaps very narrow up to the driver changes that came on lap 14. Abril opened up and managed a gap of 3 seconds on Haase, 5 on Pepper, 9 on Hanses and Fontana, then Siebert , Pitamber, Basz and Mettler, while Nana took the lead in Am.
After all changes (lap 21), Marinangeli was still in the lead, with gaps substantially unchanged: 2 seconds on Dunner, 7 on Reicher and 9 on Deledda. Baumann was fifth ahead of Hash (first in Pro-Am), Muller, Jedlinski, Hahn and Menzel.
Dunner closed slightly on Marinangeli, but the race was neutralized on lap 28 as Cozzi lost control of his car at the exit of turn 3 and crashed heavily against the wall, with the Ferrari bouncing back in the middle of the track. Unrelated to this, Müller spun too but was avoided by the group.
Cozzi was ok, but the damage to the barriers saw the race to finish behind the safety car.
