The Porsche 996 GT3’s gearbox highly influenced the outcome of Gabriele Lancieri’s weekend. The Italian GT Championship took off this weekend in Imola and Lancieri wanted to participate in this race (Imola is his home town) although he is negotiating to compete in the International Grand Touring FIA championship.

A weekend which should have been filled with celebration was instead a nightmare. Right from the start, during the free practice session, the gearbox started having problems until it completely broke. The Newman team was caught offguard and didn’t have a spare one - they had to ”rent” one from another Porsche of another team. Unfortunately this “rented gearbox “ was build specifically for the Monza track!

Regardless of this, Gabriele Lancieri coupled with Massimo Carli finished the first race in eighth place. But unfortunately they weren’t able to take part in the 2nd race because the car broke down.

Gabriele Lancieri

“It was an incredibile weekend. I am obviously very disappointed because I wasn’t able to compete  at the same level as my adversaries. I had to compete in the first race with  gear box that was built for the Monza circuit by another team for another Porsche! Imola is instead a circuit with very different characteristics.  Notwithstanding this, both Massimo and I fought till the end and finished in eighth place in race 1. Seeing the circumstances it’s not bad at all. 

Race 2 was one I’d like to forget! I wasn’t even able to get into the car. In fact when my team-mate came into the pit box to change drivers, the car broke down. It’s a real pity because I wasn’t able to prove my potential in front of my sponsors and my fans.”