Weekend Notebook: Fisichella and Mosca take Italian GT Endurance title

Fisichella-Mosca in the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 sealed the Italian GT Endurance Championship with a race to spare at the Monza circuit. The Ferrari 296 GT3 of Emil Frey Racing took two podiums at Valencia in the GT World Challenge Europe – Sprint Cup. Also in Spain, the 296 GT3 of the WTM by Rinaldi Racing team had to retire while leading at Barcelona in the 24H Series.

Italian GT Championship. In Round 3 of the Italian GT Endurance Championship contested at Monza, Scuderia Baldini's Giancarlo Fisichella and Tommaso Mosca secured the 2023 title in the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 27. After posting the best time in qualifying, the pairing finished in third place behind the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 51 of Jules Castro, Leonardo Pulcini and Stefano Gai of AF Corse.

Fisichella-Mosca mathematically sealed their place at the top of the standings but must wait until the final round at Vallelunga to settle the final order. Indeed, with a win and zero points for the Ferrari crew, rivals Comandini-Cassarà-Nilsson could join them in leading in the standings.

Demarchi-Patrinicola-Di Mare won the GT Cup Pro-Am in the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 111 of Best Lap. This second victory of the season also takes them to second place in the category standings. In the GT Cup Am, Francesco Atzori and Manuel Menichini, alongside Enrico Di Leo at the wheel of the SR&R Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 251, finished third. Vallelunga, Atzori and Menichini will turn up for the final race in second place, one point off the top. Francesco La Mazza, who raced at Monza with Thomas Biagi in Easy Race’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 269, is probably out of the title hunt. He was forced to retire after an accident early on. Marzialetti-Postiglione-Scarpetta finished just off the podium in Best Lap’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 212. The last and decisive round of the Endurance series runs from 13 to 15 October at Vallelunga.

GT World Challenge Europe. Ferrari claimed a double podium at Valencia in the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe – Sprint Cup. Emil Frey Racing’s 296 GT3 number 69 with Albert Costa and Thierry Vermeulen, second in Race-1 just four-tenths behind the leaders, stayed in contention throughout. In Race-2, Costa and Vermeulen confirmed their speed on the Spanish track with another podium, finishing third this time. Emil Frey Racing’s second car, the number 14 of Giacomo Altoé and Konsta Lappalainen, left Valencia with a seventh and a fifth place.

In the other classes, Sean Hudspeth and Nicola Marinangeli in AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 71 came sixth and fifth in the Silver Cup standings. Teammates Louis Machiels and Andrea Bertolini in the 296 GT3 number 52 closed the two races in tenth and eighth place in the Bronze Cup. The last two GT World Challenge Europe championship events take place from 29 September to 1 October in Barcelona for the Endurance Cup and in Zandvoort from 14 to 15 October for the Sprint Cup.

24H Series. The Ferrari 296 GT3 of WTM by Rinaldi Racing number 22 was unlucky in round six of the 24H Series at Barcelona. After setting the third-best time in qualifying, Georg Weiss, Leonard Weiss, Jochen Krumbach, Torsten Kratz and Isaac Tutumlu Lopez drove brilliantly to take the lead. However, on the stroke of the eleventh hour, the car had to retire because of an electrical fault in the gearbox, probably caused by a collision with a Mercedes earlier in the day. After the European session, the championship will continue from 7 to 9 December with the 12 Hours of Kuwait.