26 September 2016
Francorchamps, 26 Sept 2016 - The Ferrari 458 Italia GTE of JMW Motorsport sealed another great triumph at Spa-Francorchamps taking a big step towards the title with only the Estoril round still to go in four weeks time.
Yellow hammer. Andrea Bertolini, Rory Butcher and Robert Smith's handling of the race was simply perfect with their yellow Ferrari almost immediately establishing a very comfortable lead. The twists and turns of the final minutes, including a few drops of rain falling mainly in the finish area, made no difference to the positions, with an easy win for car no. 66. Second place went to the Porsche of Roda-Cairoli-Reid while third was taken by another Ferrari, the 458 Italia GTE no. 55 of Matt Griffin, Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott, which notched up a deserved first podium of the season.
Situation. Bertolini, Butcher, Smith and JMW Motorsport among teams are topping the standings with 20 points over their closest pursuers, the Aston Martin no. 99 of Howard-Turner-MacDowall, which only came fifth at Spa-Francorchamps. This means that at Estoril the British car will need a win to have any chance of edging the title from the Ferrari crew. Overall victory went to the Oreca-Nissan of Dragonspeed with former Ferrari Challenge driver Henrik Hedman, Nicolas Lapierre and Ben Hanley.