Ferrari on the up in SRO E-Sports GT Series

Three 488 GT3s finished in the top ten of the penultimate round of the SRO series, David Fumanelli, eighth at the finish line, the best among Ferrari drivers after David Perel's penalty.

Mid field. The Maranello cars all had to fight their way up the order, with lap times similar to the best, after qualifying left them on the edge of the top ten. After that, they avoided too much damage following the chaos at the start, triggered by a Lamborghini, which involved much of the lead group. At the end of the hour long race for the Pros, the winner was Louis Delétraz in the GPX Racing Porsche with all six 488 GT3s finishing in the top fifteen.

Gimme five. David Perel was again the best of them in the Rinaldi Racing car, finishing sixth, although he was classified fifth because third placed Federico Leo was ineligible for points. The South African started 13th and then had some close fights as he worked his way up the order, including one with Simone De Luca and David Fumanelli, ninth at the chequered flag. The Kessel Racing driver was on form, crossing the line ahead of Nicolas Hillebrand. The German in the Buttler-Pal Motorsport 488 GT3 started from the 12th row and made the most of the chaos at the start and a rapid climb up the order to finish tenth, successfully fending off Buncombe in the Bentley. Thirteenth was Chris Froggatt (Sky Tempesta Racing) who finished nine places higher than he started, while Yefanov could not match his Spa-Francorchamps performance, fighting all the way to 15th in the Fasttuning Ferrari. At the end of the race, however, there was a cold shower for Perel, to whom the stewards gave a drive through, transformed into 30" to add to the overall time, which pushed him back into eleventh position, allowing Fumanelli and Hillebrand to take eighth and ninth place.

The Nielsen show. 14th place at the flag might not seem like much, but there was more to it than meets the eye. Nicklas Nielsen started from 29th on the grid. With each passing lap, the Dane managed to get closer to the top ten battle before securing his best result of the series. “This race has been a big improvement compared to the two previous ones, especially in terms of race pace,” commented Nielsen. “But I have to up my speed in qualifying, so my aim in Barcelona was to improve my lap times during the race. From here we will try and do even better in the next round.”

Silver. As usual, after the Pros it was the turn of the Silver class which involved two FDA Hublot Team drivers, series leader David Tonizza and Enzo Bonito, who finished in 11th and 14th places respectively.

Final act. Now, it’s down to the fans to decide by ballot which track on the calendar will host the final race of the season on 21st June, for both the Pro and Silver classes.