• Perfect race for Montermini-Maceratesi and Gião-Couceiro• Pasini-Bonetti (AE) complete all-Ferrari podium• Young rookies Caccato-Visconti (Racing Box Lamborghini) win in GTS
Scuderia Playteam SaraFree started the 2008 season in the best possible way, as Andrea Montermini-Michele Maceratesi and Manuel Gião-Pedro Couceiro took their Ferraris F430 to a beautiful double win in the Pro-Am Race in Vallelunga. The blue F430s had a relatively easy race, which had started under the command of the SunRed SR21 of Pérez-Aicart, later slowed down and retired after losing the front body. Advanced Engineering took third (Pasini-Bonetti) and fourth (Casè-Rugolo), completing the success of the Ferraris, while Autorlando Porsche of Lietz-Roda was fifth.
In GTS, Racing Box took a solid victory with rookies Andrea Ceccato and Marco Visconti, with another Lamborghini Gallardo (one of the Mik Corse units with Geri-Armetta) finishing third. The Lambos “sandwiched” in the podium the second-placed Villois Aston Martin ofWiser-Romanini.
PADDOCK RUN-DOWN AND FREE PRACTICEWith the absence of the three Vipers and the Marcos in GTS, the final number of cars present at scrutineering is 29. Last-minute change in driver line-up regards the #18 GPC Ferrari, which will be in the hands of young duo, composed of Italy’s Alex Frassineti (20) and Spain’s Manuel Sáez Merino (19).
The two free practice on Friday saw some session interruption but no major incidents, except an off-track for Cressoni (Edil Cris Ferrari), an engine broken on Sáez Merino’s GPC Ferrari and a throttle cable broken on Villaroel’s Ferrari. Fastest time in session 1 was for Ferdinando Monfardini (Edil Cris Ferrari) in GTA, with a time of 1.34.556, and for Ferdinando Geri (Racing Box Lamborghini) in GTS (1.39.470).Session 2 saw the SunRed of Pérez-Aicart setting fastest time in GTA (1.36.361) and the Gallardos repeating themselves in GTS, this time with Stefano Livio on one of the Mik Corse’s cars.
QUALIFYING 1It’s dry weather, although cool and windy, and a pretty uneventful session on qualifying for Race 1 on Saturday morning. In GTA, Andrea Montermini on the Playteam Ferrari, clinches the pole (1.34.797), with seven other cars in the same second behind him: Pasini (AEFerrari) is second just ahead of Pompidou at his debut with the Trottet Racin’s 430. Pérez-Aicart is fourth and first of the non-Ferraris, with the SunRed, while Belicchi puts the firstഊPorsche in 9 th position. In GTS, Stefano Livio puts the Mik Corse Lamborghini in pole (1.38.449), eight tenths ahead of the Villois Aston of Ricci and 1.1 second ahead of the Racing Box Lambo of Visconti.
PRO-AM RACE(This being the first race of the season, there are no performance handicaps.)
At the start, Pérez-Aicart is fastest using the power of his Sunred SR21 to take the lead but there is a door-to-door fight with the Ferraris of Montermini, Pasini and Pompidou where everybody touches everybody. It’s Aicart taking the advantage, while Pompidou losesground and has to give way to Couceiro and Belicchi. In lap 3, though, the SunRed (which had been suffering problems with the body attachs since the beginning of the weekend) loses its front bonnet and Aicart has to give way to Montermini first and to Pasini shortlyafter. The Spaniard tries to resist but he will have to pit for repairs few laps later.
In the meantime, a contact in lap 4 between the Ferraris of Monfardini, Sala and Frassineti eliminates the last two. The fight is quite lively at all stages and some interesting performances: Bontempelli (on the Edil Cris Ferrari) passes Belicchi and Casè, goes wide shortly after at Cimino corner and will fight with Roda for a couple of laps.
As we approach the time window for driver change (minutes 22-33), tyres start to suffer and cause a number of spins (Monfardini, Desbruères, Petrobelli, Pasini and Pampló, who has to retire), while in the lead nothing seems to bother Montermini, who has a 7-secondadvantage over Couceiro, Pompidou, Pasini, Casé and Belicchi, while in GTS the Villois Aston of Ricci leads Racing Box Lambo of Visconti, the Corvette of Pellizzato and the Mik Lambo of Livio, the earliest leader.
After the driver change, the two Playteam Ferraris lead, with Maceratesi 19 seconds ahead of Gião, followed by Bonetti, Alexander, Rugolo, Sundberg, Frezza, Cressoni and Lietz. In lap 22, the SunRed of Fernández spins twice, while in lap 26, Aguas (AE Ferrari) unlaps himself from Maceratesi after a short fight. This second part of the race sees the expected charge of Richard Lietz on the Autorlando Porsche, who fights hard to pass the two EdilCris Ferraris of Frezza (lap 25) and Cressoni twice (lap 28 and 33). He will gain another position when Sundberg drops back in lap 33, the same which sees Núñez (Icer Ferrari) spin and remain trapped in the gravel, to finish fifth behind the two leading Playteam Ferraris and the other two Ferraris from Advanced Engineering of Bonetti and Rugolo. In GTS, positions are confirmed, with the Racing Box Lambo of Ceccato taking the win in front of the Villois Aston of Wiser and the Mik Lambo of Romanini, third after the retirement of the Twentytwo Corvette of Cioci in lap 27 because of mmechanical problems.
The GT Open race (28 laps) will start todaySunday 20 April at 12:50.
