A very close race again in the sixth round of the 2012 GT Open at Budapest: behind the wheel of their Ferrari 458, Montermini and Lopez came in a strong second place with only two weekends to get to fight for the championship

Budapest (Hungary), September 9th, 2012. In Budapest the aabar Abu Dhabi Villorba racing with Ferrari Team had excellent performances again in the sixth round of the International GT Open. The Italian squad led by Raimondo Amadio came in at an exciting second place in race-2 after a very tough fight for the lead. Behind the wheel of their Ferrari 458 of Super GT class, race drivers Andrea Montermini and Juan Manuel Lopez crossed the finish line just three tenths off their opponents. The Italian former F.1 driver, in particular, tried several breathtaking attempts to take the lead in the last ten laps, attracting the attention of the cameras after a great comeback.

At the Hungaroring, this afternoon Lopez kept up a good pace throughout the first stint of the race, entering the pits in fourth position for the mandatory pit-stop and leaving his teammate the wheel of the powerful GT car from Maranello. Once back on track and pushing to the limit for some laps, Montermini caught up and started an exciting struggle which only ended under the chequered flag. So the aabar Abu Dhabi Villorba could celebrate the fifth podium of the season in a race that showed once again that it is among the highest level of the championship. At the moment, the Italian squad is still involved in the struggle for the title, waiting for the next rounds in the home race in Monza and Barcelona.

We experienced an exciting and thrilling finale - says Amadio, Team Principal -. We are satisfied with this result because we had a great race and we have been among the major contenders during the whole weekend. Our car showed to be competitive and the strategy was also perfect. Today, Montermini made an excellent comeback in the second half of the race. We tried to win but there were no possibilities to overtake safely. That was crucial for us because we did not want to take useless risks throwing everything away. Now we look forward to Monza. We will prepare well to score valuables points again."

I'm happy with the second place - says Montermini -. We also hoped to be able to finish ahead and we did our best, everything we could to succeed, but when you face certain situations, above all in a twisty track like this, it is really impossible."