Ferrari of Formula Racing wins ELMS GTE title at Estoril

 The Ferrari customer team Formula Racing only needed to manage its lead to earn the 2015 title in the GTE class of the European le Mans Series. The three Danish team drivers, Johnny Laursen, Mikke Mac, and Andrea Rizzoli, took fifth place at the Estoril circuit, a result that rendered meaningless the win of the BMW of the Marc VDS team driven by Jesse Krohn, Henry Hassid, and Andy Priaulx, who finished four points behind in the standings. Ferrari thus takes another title, after that of 2014 earned under the SMP Racing banner.

The race. The 4 Hours of the Estoril was not a walk in the park for the Formula Racing trio. In fact, the 458 Italia number 60 was assessed a penalty that cost it several positions, although the title was never at risk. The winning BMW was followed by the Aston Martin of MacDowall-Adam-Howard and the Porsche of Wainwright-Carroll-Keen. Bad luck struck the 458 Italia of the JMW team, which, after leading the race, also on the strength of the WEC driver James Calado, was slowed down by technical problems.

Victory and defeat. In the GTC class, the day provided bittersweet results. In fact, the winner was the Ferrari number 63 of AF Corse driven by Marco Cioci, Ilya Melnikov, and Giorgio Roda, but car number 62 of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, and Stuart Hall finished fourth and failed to come back to take the title. The BMW of the TDS Racing team driven by Franck Perera, Dino Lunardi, and Eric Dermont, second on the podium, took the title. Third place went to the Ferrari number 64 of Mads Rasmussen, Francisco Guedes, and Felipe Barreiros.


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