After scoring the pole position early in the morning in the Chevrolet Corvette C6/ZR1 shared by Isaac Tutumlu and Archie Hamilton, the Spaniard of Kurdish heritage achieved another podium finish in the International GT Open with a 2nd place on the rostrum.
Isaac Tutumlu and Barzani Racing Team have finished on the podium of the International GT Open again, on the occasion of the race held at Monza today. Against the odds – as time handicap was huge-, Tutumlu delivering another inspired performance, with the support of his teammate Archie Hamilton and the Chevrolet Corvette C6/ZR1 fielded by Selleslagh Racing Team made this possible.
In the qualifying session Hamilton set the pole position time posting a lap of 1:47.868, beating Paolo Ruberti ́s Ferrari and two Chevrolets driven by Maxime Soulet and Miguel Ramos. When the race was started, Hamilton led for ten laps, when he was passed by Soulet. When the Belgian driver pitted, Daniel Zampieri also overtook Hamilton, in the lap 17, just at a moment when Hamilton also headed into the pit-lane for handing the car over to Tutumlu. Barcelona-born driver rejoined the race 5th after a 90-second handicap time, and within a few minutes he was able to move through the field, passing Claudio Sdanewitsch, Giorgio Roda and almost Roman Mavlanov. Russia ́s driver took the lead from Kelvin Snoeks, and the Dutch young-ace was demoted to third by Tutumlu. After seventy minutes Tutumlu reached the finish line second in the slipstream of Mavlanov.
“It ́s an amazing race result and we are very happy. We delivered a great performance to finish second and with our handicap this result wasn ́t easy at all. Archie grabbed a great pole position time and led in the first half of the race. When I started my stint, I was able to overtake two Ferraris without too many problems, but when I tried to pass Roman it got a bit more tricky. Ferraris brake very well and their traction is another good point for them. In the slipstream this affected our downforce, and it was quite risky”, Tutumlu explained, saying that “when I overtook Snoeks, maybe with two other laps, I could have fought for the win, but the race came to an end before. It ́s a great result. Let ́s see tomorrow with a 95- second handicap!”.
