Two podiums for Ferrari in GT World Challenge debut at Imola

The second places for AF Corse in the Gold and Pro-Am classes, respectively with Delacour-Sbirrazzuoli-Balzan and Bertolini-Machiels-Costantini, marked a positive first round of the GT World Challenge Powered by AWS held at Imola. 

Pro. The two Iron Lynx Ferraris in the main class took very different routes to seventh and eighth place. While the number 51 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of James Calado, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, starting from sixth, was in the leading group, the number 71 car of Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra and Antonio Fuoco spent three hours on the attack. It climbed back up the field to finish in the wake of its teammates. The Maranello cars were unable to challenge for the podium and were penalised by the two Safety Cars that featured in the last hour, interrupting the excellent race pace of Calado and Fuoco and preventing any further gain in positions.

Gold. The second place of the Ferrari crewed by Alessandro Balzan, Hugo Delacour and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli represents an excellent result for AF Corse in the new SRO series category. In the race finale, the number 21 488 GT3 Evo 2020 was forced to give up a lead held for much of the 180 minutes. The Ferrari of Iron Dames, driven by Sarah Bovy, retired after an accident in the very early stages.

Pro-Am. Andrea Bertolini’s splendid overtaking move on Chavez’s McLaren just minutes before the chequered flag ensured that the AF Corse Ferrari, shared with Louis Machiels and Stefano Costantini, took second place in the Pro-Am class. The trio were always in the top three, which bodes well for the rest of the season.