Frezza-López (Vittoria) extend lead after third success in Spa
Maiden seasonal win for the Villois Aston in GTSSpa-Francorchamps, 26 June 2011
Marco Frezza and Cochito López (Vittoria Competizioni) took their third seasonal winand extended their lead in the overall standings of the championship. The Italian-Argentine pair, which opted to race in Belgium with their ‘old’ Ferrari F430 as theteam could not test much with their new 458, performed a faultless race, beating theKessel Racing 458 of Philipp Peter-Michal Broniszewski, who took their first podium ofthe year. Yesterday’s winners, Montermini-Moncini (Villorba Ferrari) crossed the linethird, but was disqualified after the race for using non marked tyres, leaving theirspot to Garofano-Rangoni (AF Corse).
In GTS, after a challenging start of the season, Villois Racing and the Aston MartinDBRS9 took a brilliant first win, with Gabriele Lancieri and Max Wiser beating theAutorlando Porsche of Fabio Babini-Gianluca Roda, the points class leaders, and theDeboeuf Porsche of Thomas Gruber-Marco Seefried.
Sunday saw a gorgeous day gracing Spa. At the start, Emanuele Moncini (VillorbaFerrari), who had signed a brilliant pole in qualifying 2 ahead of Bontempelli, keptthe advantage but was soon passed by Barba who pulled away easily. Seefried was anexcellent third at that moment, ahead of Lopez, Roda and Lancieri. Unfortunately forBarba, his rear right tire exploded in lap 5, at the exit of Blanchimont (exactly wherehe had a frightening accident last year) but he could rejoin the pits to change hiswheel. As Caccia suffered the same misfortune soon after, the safety-car went out toallow cleaning the debris, with the whole group re-compacting shortly before driverchanges.
After those, Frezza, who had no handicap, took the lead and kept control over Peterand Rangoni, while Montermini climbed back to third after his 20” handicap. Finallaps saw an intense fight between Ceccato and Giammaria for eight (the latter haddamaged the nose of his car in a contact with a lapped car) which ended with thetwo tangling together at the bus stop, while Wiser on the Villois Aston managed tomaintain minimal advantage over Babini, who was struggling with his tyres, to ensuresuccess in GTS.
Overall Standings: 1. Lopez-Frezza, 94; 2. Montermini-Moncini, 69; 3. Babini-Roda, 61; 4. Ramos-Giammaria, 59; 5.Barba-Ceccato, 58
GTS: 1. Babini-Roda, 43 p.; 2. Bontempelli-Gattuso, 38; 3. Rizzoli-Bizzarri, 32; 4. Gruber, 28; 5. Lancieri-Wiser, 25Team: 1. Vittoria Competizioni, 42; 2. Villorba Corse, 30; 3. EdilCris, 26; 4. Autorlando Sport, 25; 5. JMB Racing, 21Team GTS: 1. Autorlando Sport, 43 p.; 2. Kessel Racing, 38; 3. AF Corse, 32; 4. Deboeuf, 28; 5. Villois Racing, 25
