Daniele Di Amato and Giannoni put on a show in the Coppa Shell
Three weeks after the opening round of the season at Monza, Imola’s Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit today hosted the second round of the European series of Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli. There were two races for both the Trofeo Pirelli runners and those in the Coppa Shell, while a large number of Ferrari owners took to the track at the wheel of their own Ferrari in the special “Emozioni in Pista” programme. This was a big weekend for racing, with no less than 24,000 (over 12,000 on Sunday) spectators in attendance to see an interesting package. The crowd enjoyed the busy programme that were seen on television in over 60 countries.
Imola (Bologna), 22 April- In the Trofeo Pirelli, the first win went to Alessandro Balzan (Ferrari Moscow) who had already made his mark taking pole yesterday. He did it with a great start that saw him keep the lead from the start to finish, ahead of Niki Cadei (Motor/Piacenza) and Bjorn Grossmann (Ferrari Moscow), who was third albeit 17 seconds down. Lorenzo Casè (Motor/Piacenza) just missed out on the podium, finishing fourth and getting the better of Max Blancardi (Motor/Malucelli) and Alexandr Skryabin (Ferrari Moscow) first in the two Coppa Giovani classifications. At the the end of the second leg, Cadei got the better of Balzan, while third place went to Andrii Kruglyk (Ferrari Ukraina) running very competitively on the twists and turns of the Imola track.
Of the Coppa Shell drivers, Daniele Di Amato (CDP) took the first leg. The Italian started from pole and stayed out in front to the chequered flag, followed home by Alexey Basov (Ferrari Moscow) and Giacomo Stratta (Forza Service). At the end of the second race, victory went to Raffaele Giannoni (Motor/Piacenza) who benefited from a drive through inflicted on Basov for a jumped start. The silver medal went to Stratta (Forza Service,) while the fight for the bottom rung of the podium ended with the advantage going to Fernando Baiz (Rossocorsa). Out of contention was Kessel Racing’s Fons Scheltema (winner of the Coppa Gentleman in Race 1) after a spectacular accident, fortunately without injury, which also involved Rupert Martin (Stratstone Ferrari) and Franciso Guedes (Motor/Piacenza). Coming out on top in the Coppa Gentleman in Race 2 was Giorgio Raffaeli (Kessel Racing) who crossed the line in eleventh place.
The next and third round of the European series of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli takes place at Mugello over the weekend of 3 June.
Ferrari Challenge European Series Classification
Trofeo PirelliGrossmann 67Cadei 67Balzan 39
Coppa Shell Basov 58Giannoni 56Stratta 52
