PR below:
Leaders Frezza-López (Vittoria) to continue with Ferrari F430Ferraris 458 and Autorlando Porsche determined to fight backFerrari-Porsche duel heats up in GTSMercedes SLS to debut in the series with De Marco-Puglisi (Sports&You)Mortimer-Bamford (RPM Ford) ready to shine at home
PREVIEWFor its fourth 2011 round, the one that will mark the end of the first part of theseason, the International GT Open is heading to one of the cradles of motorsports,Brands Hatch. This will be the third time that the series visits Kent’s legendarytrack, which after a first event back in 2007, has become a regular fixture in thecalendar in 2010.
British fans will have the opportunity not only to watch the usual exciting showoffered by the GT Open, but also a battle for titles that is becoming more andmore interesting. On top of the overall standings, the Vittoria Competizioni paircomposed of Marco Frezza and Cochito López will do their utmost to extend theirpoints capital (currently, 94) and continue their exceptional trend of one win ateach round. To that end, they have decided to continue campaign the “old” FerrariF430 rather than the new 458. On the contrary, Andrea Montermini-EmanueleMoncini, on the Villorba Corse Ferrari 458, will try to impose the new machinery ofthe Prancing Horse, while other 458s, like the ones of Giammaria-Ramos (EdilCris),Ayari-Marroc (JMB Racing) or Peter-Broniszewski (Kessel Racing) will look for theirfirst win this year, and Alvaro Barba-Andrea Ceccato, on the 997 by AutorlandoSport, will lead the Porsche assault to the championship.
In the GTS category, the battle is fiercer than ever between the Porsches of FabioBabini-Gianluca Roda (the current leaders and twice race winners, with theirAutorlando car) and Thomas Gruber-Marco Seefried (Deboeuf), and the Ferraris 458of Lorenzo Bontempelli-Stefano Gattuso (who have won 3 races for Kessel Racing sofar) and of young guns Stefano Bizzarri-Andrea Rizzoli (AF Corse), who after fourseconds in 6 races, will really want to climb that last step on the podium. It is inthis category that will be entered the most interesting novelty in the 25-car strongfield, as the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 will make its first appearance in the GT Open,thanks to Portuguese team Sports&You, who will campaign a unit for the rest of theseason, entrusted to Italian former single-seater stars Nicola De Marco-MarcelloPuglisi.
It is also in the GTS category that will race the local heroes: the all-British TeamRPM Ford GT of Alex Mortimer-Peter Bamford, that shine regularly in the seriessince 2010, will certainly want to do well in front of their home crowd, whileDaniel Brown and Glynn Geddie will make their debut at the wheel of an AF CorseFerrari 458 GT3 and the Trackspeed Porsche GT3 of David Ashburn will not miss itsyearly outing.
Sharing the event programme with other prime series like the Formula Two and theEuropean F3 Open, the International GT Open round of Brands Hatch will becomprehensively covered live by TV stations around Europe, such as Motors TV(pan-European), Nuvolari and Primocanale (Italy), Teledeporte and Canal +Deportes (Spain), Sport TV (Portugal) and Orange TV Sport (Poland), while all theaction can also be viewed live in streaming TV on www.gtopen.net.
Friday 22 July 2011
11:15-12:15 Free Practice 1 / Libres 114:15-15:15 Free Practice 2 / Libres 2Saturday 23 July 2011 / Sábado 23 Julio 201109:40-09:55 Qualifying / Clasficación1 GTS09:55-10:00 Qualifying / Clasficación1 SGT + GTS10:00-10:15 Qualifying / Clasficación1 SGT11:45-12:00 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 GTS12:00-12:05 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 SGT + GTS12:05-12:20 Qualifying / Clasficación 2 SGT15:00-16:10 Race 1 / Carrera 1 (70’ - Rolling Start / Salida lanzada)
Sunday 24 July 2011 / Domingo 24 Julio 201113:00-13:50 Race 2 / Carrera 2 (50’ – Salida lanzada)
