Ibiza Racing Team experienced another positive racing weekend in Silverstone, where Auto GP held the fourth round of the season.
On the legendary British track, Sergio Campana crossed the Race 2 line just inches shy of the win, bringing home a second place finish that strenghtens his role in the series standings as the first and more dangerous rival to leader Kimiya Sato.
The Spanish outfit arrived in Silverstone without Giuseppe Cipriani, who had to miss the UK round due to a strong backache: Fabrizio Crestani, a talented Italian driver with previous Auto GP experience, stepped in for him, doing an amazing job.
Ibiza's start to the British weekend was troubled, with gearbox issue for Crestani and engine woes for Campana (his V8 had to be changed). That meant that the Ibiza cars lined-up at the back of the grid for Race 1, with Crestani in P12 and Campana in 14th.
Both drivers boasted an outstanding performance in the race, Crestani making up nine places to finish in 5th position and Campana taking the flag in 7th, just behind title rival Sato.
Campana's seventh place meant Sergio earned a front row start for Race 2 alongside Sato, and he made the most of it challenging the japanese for the win from the lights to the flag. The Italian driver tried hard, but tyre wear emerged just before his pit-stop, preventing him from lapping quick enough to pass his rival in the pit window. Still, he got very close and crossed the line just 0.8 adrift of Sato.
Crestani, meanwhile, stalled on the grid in the warm-up lap and had to start the race from the pits, but after that initial issue his performance was amazing, a recovery drive that brought him as high as P10.
Campana was delighted after Race 2: "This podium finish is the deserved prize for the hard work carried out by the whole team this weekend. We even had to miss the second Practice to change the engine, but despite that we managed to find a very good setup".
Modesto Benegiamo, Team Manager of Ibiza Racing, spoke words of praise for both the drivers and the team: "Looking at how our weekend had started, we have many reasons to be happy. We had pretty serious gearbox issues on Crestani's car, and the engine on Campana's car had to be changed, it wasn't a dream start, that's sure. Anyway the team did a great job and so did our drivers: Crestani was really quick and if he wasn't hindered by those gearbox woes I'm sure he would have done even better. Sergio, on the other hand, showed that he's strong enough to put a weekend back on the right track even after a dreadful start. He could have won Race 2, if tyres didn't fall off so early before his pit-stop. Without that, possibly we would have been cheering for our third win of the season, but it's ok, we are a rookie team and we are achieving some incredible results in our first year of activity".
Below, the drivers standings after the Silverstone round:
1 Kimiya Sato JPN 126
2 Sergio Campana ITA 113
3 Vittorio Ghirelli ITA 102
4 N.Karthikeyan IND 59
5 Riccardo Agostini ITA 53
6 Luciano Bacheta ENG 49
7 Daniel De Jong NDL 48
8 Tamas Pal Kiss ENG 37
9 Robert Visoiu ROM 34
10 M.van Buuren NDL 29
