Nicky Pastorelli and Miguel Ramos won a frantic second GT Open race at the Hungaroring on Sunday, leading home a Corvette 1-2. The #2 V8 Racing C6R finishing ahead of the #6 Selleslagh Racing machine of Maxime Soulet and Isaac Tutumulu. There was also an impressive third place for the defending series champions, the #1 Villorba Corse Ferrari 458 of Niccolo Schiro and Andrea Montermini.
Pastorelli led a frantic start from pole position and held onto the lead into turn one as behind the pack exploded, with cars four abreast briefly in the charge to the first corner. Daniel Keilwitz made up four places in the #99 V8 Racing Corvette – having started ninth he was into fifth by the first corner.
Elsewhere, Francesco Castellacci in the #53 AF Corse Ferrari slid back four places to eighth from fourth. Daniel Zampieri in the #60 SMP Racing Ferrari stayed right with the leader Pastorelli and took the lead at turn two. Soulet had also made a strong start, moving from seventh on the grid to take third from third-place starter Jose Perez Aicart in the #61 SMP Racing Ferrari.
Zampieri did not hang about and had a one-second lead over Pastorelli by the second lap. The pair lapped ahead of a fight for third place between Soulet, Aicart, Keilwitz and Schiro, who had held his sixth place from the start. Castellacci then began his recovery, taking seventh from Thomas Jager in the #70 Lechner Racing Mercedes SLS at turn one. Jagers luck was leaving him, as Michele Rugolo in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari also got past him for eighth place, but then Rugolo ran very wide at turn four, briefly losing his position but regaining it at turn six. He received a warning from race control for not respecting track limits, as did Keilwitz in the #99 car – however the latter’s excursion had damaged the car and forced him to retire.
At the front, Zampieri and Pastorelli had increased their lead to six seconds over the three-way fight for third, which saw Aicart pull off a very ambitious outbrake on Soulet. The rear of the Ferrari fishtailed as Aicart struggled to keep it on the tarmac, but he gained third position as intended. This move clearly took Soulet by surprise, and Schiro moved closer, along with Castellacci. Jagers luckless race concluded as Rugolo made heavy contact at turn seven, the Mercedes going sideways into the tyrewall at speed. Jager recovered to the pitlane and retired.
Zampieri was not getting totally away from Pastorelli and was showing signs of pressure: the Ferrari’s tail sliding around as the Corvette flashed its lights. The pit window then opened and Schiro was in immediatley for a 115-second stop for fresh tyres and the handover to Montermini. Roda pitted for Paolo Ruberti, Cesar Campanico in the #58 Team Nova Driver Audi R8 handed to Aditya Patel and Duncan Cameron in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari handed to Matt Griffin.
Pastorelli was next to pit, struggling to get the car slowed to the pitlane speed limit, but every second really did count as Soulet had a ‘standard’ 65-second pitstop compared to Pastorelli’s 90 seconds to hand over to Miguel Ramos and getw a fresh set of tyres. Soulet pitted on the next lap to hand over to Tutumulu, while race leader Zampieri pitted to hand over to Roman Mavlanov in a 95-second stop. Rugolo was among the last to pit to hand over to Claudio Sdanewitsch, but the earlier contact with Jager had caused the driver’s door to stick, meaning the pair had to swap over via the passenger side. The extra effort led to nothing as Sdanewitsch retired the car two laps later.
After the stops were complete Vyacheslav Maleev led in the #61 Ferrari, but the real mover was Montermini, driving the #1 Ferrari up to four seconds a lap quicker than anyone else ontrack. Over a few short laps, Montermini took Alvaro Barba (#63 Ombra Racing Ferrari), Griffin, Campanico and then Ruberti to take fifth.
At the front, Tutumulu had reduced the gap to Maleev to one second, with Ramos not far behind, and the Russian driver was under a lot of pressure as the Ferrari was struggling to stay ahead, braking late and sliding out of corners. Tutumulu’s pressure paid off as Maleev spun from the lead at turn 13. The rear of the car glanced off the armco, causing slight damage, but Maleev was not totally stunned as he got going rather quickly to rejoin in third place and keeping the GTS class lead. Ramos inherited second position and kept the hammer down as he reeled in Tutumulu for the lead. Maleev’s third was short lived, as Montermini took it, still on his charge and still the fastest car on track.
The SMP Racing slide continued as Mavlanov was demoted by Barba and Griffin to seventh, then fell into the clutches of Ruberti. With just over a lap remaining, Ramos made his move on Tutumulu, taking the lead calmly at turn three and holding on for the win. Montermini was within 10 seconds of the lead pair as the flag dropped for a Super GT class lockout of the podium.
A fine comeback by the Corvettes then, whose straight-line speed advantage paid off against the better handling Ferraris. Montermini made up seven positions on his charge and could well have threatened for the win if the race had lasted another 10 minutes.
Pastorelli and Ramos took the lead in the drivers’ championship thanks to their win, and are now two points ahead of Schiro and Montermini, with Zampieri and Mavlanov in third position as the championship moves to the next round at Silverstone on July 19-20.
Ed Fahey
Images: FOTOSPEEDY
