The multi-national line-up of David Vidales, Leonardo Colavita and Ibrahim Badawi came tantalizingly close to a sensational overall victory in the second round of the Italian GT Endurance Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
After three hours of exciting, action-packed racing they had to settle for the runner-up slot but P2 at the chequered flag did see them take the win in the GT3 Pro Am category and they now lead the table, albeit equal on 38 points with Misano winners Mazzola/Rauer/Cazzaniga (Tresor Attempto Audi).
All three men played a key part in taking the #62 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 to second place, moving up through the field from P14 in a complicated first stint for Egyptian Badawi who had started from fifth on the grid, to P10 with Italian Colavita and then P5 with the Spaniard as the race reached the half-way point.
The first hour of the race looked to be safely in the hands of the VSR Lamborghini but it was penalized for not respecting restart procedures, and the Audi Sport Italia R8 LMS, the BMW Italia M4 and the various Ferraris then came into play in the second hour.
A Full Course Yellow at the 90-minute mark stabilized the positions with the #21 Audi ahead of the #1 BMW followed by the #98, #51 and #62 Ferrari and the neutralization became a Safety Car for the next 20 minutes, but no positions were lost by Badawi, who on the restart overtook Raghunathan (Ferrari) and Gorini (Ferrari) to take P3 with one hour remaining.
Colavita then moved into second place behind Lambrughi (#21 Audi) and ahead of Tamburini (#98 Ferrari) and passed the #21 at the first Variante to take the lead with 38 minutes remaining, only to lose it again as they cycled through the final pitstops.
It was now Cantù (#21 Audi) from Vidales, who was catching the leader when he was knocked off the racing line at the first Variante by Coluccio (#98 Ferrari), who was later penalized for that unsafe manoeuvre coming out of the pitlane.
Cantù then punctured and crashed with 15 minutes remaining, leaving a ten-minute Safety Car period, after which in the final five minutes Vidales was just unable to hold off the hard-charging Michele Beretta (#63 VSR Lamborghini), who took the win ahead of the #62. Third place went to the #51 AF Corse Ferrari.
“It was an amazing race,” declared Vidales after the podium. “Honestly, I’m extremely happy now and we are all up in the clouds. It was one of those races where after the first laps you think that it’s all over, the car was damaged, we were P15 really far from the front guys. And then you know everything starts to change a little bit. With our stints, we managed to recover a lot of positions and we were back to P5. Then Ibrahim and Leo did other good stints, bringing the car to the top and then on the last stint it was about holding it there and bringing it home. It’s like those times where you go through a lot of things, the car had a lot of damage and we were not even sure if we were going to finish the race at one point. So, bringing home the win and leading the championship as well is something special, I’m really happy so a big thanks to all the team, all the mechanics, the engineers, my teammates, to MIM of course, Amato and everyone who made this possible. Coming as well after two months of break, it feels good to get back to a good level in a race. I was feeling good and I was feeling comfortable. Every lap, I was getting back those feelings and the confidence so I’m really happy as well that I could deliver at a good level, even though I have not been racing or testing since Misano. So, now let’s keep pushing, the next one is Imola. A track that I love so we are looking forward to it already.”
The next Italian GT Endurance Championship round is at Imola on 1-3 August.
Photos: Courtesy of ACI Sport S.p.A. (SmugMug, Inc.)
