In an eventful, hard-fought race which saw two safety car deployments, the second of which occurred during the closing stages, it was Gianluca Roda and Alessio Rovera in their AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 scoring an important victory at Monza.

This marks the pairing’s first Sprint series win of the season, a result that keeps them in the fight for the 2020 title.

PREVIEW | RACE 1 REPORT | RACE 2 REPORT

During the first stint, which saw the safety car deployed after just the first lap due to an off-track excursion from Kikko Galbiati in his Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3, Rovera trailed behind the Loris Spinelli and Lorenzo Ferrari-raced AKM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, eventually handing driving duties to Roda for the second stint.

Gianluca Roda was able to stay up to the front runners throughout the race, however mayhem ensued after the safety car was deployed a second time with just minutes to spare. This led to the field bunching up for a last lap sprint to the finish.

After the restart, Roda was passed by a lighting quick Leonardo Pulcini in his Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 who took over the lead after the AKM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 was shunted off track. While Pulcini and teammate Danny Kroes initially took the race win, they were relegated back to fourth place after a five-second time penalty was handed to them for avoidable contact with the Kikko Galbiati, Giovanni Venturini driven Lamborghini Huracán GT3 during the opening lap. This meant Roda and Rovera would inherit the race win, with second place going to the Audi Sport Italia Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Riccardo Agostini and Mattia Drudi.

On the third step of the podium was the Simon Mann, Matteo Cressoni AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3, winning the Pro-Am class. Behind the AF Corse drivers where the two Ferrari 488 GT3s of Easy Race (Mattia Michelotto/Sean Hudspeth) and RS Racing (Daniele Di Amato/Alessandro Vezzoni).

After punting the AKM Motorsport Mercedes off the track during the last lap, the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Yuki Nemoto/Tuomas Tujula) was handed a five-second penalty, which meant they would be relegated back to seventh place.

Eight place and Am honors went to the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 991.2 GT3R of Alex De Giacomi and Marco Cassarà, finishing ahead of class rivals Ebimotors (Paolo Venerosi/Alessandro Baccani) in their Porsche GT3R.

Although a race 1 victory was achieved, bad luck struck the BMW Team Italia BMW M6 GT3 of Marius Zug and Stefano Comandini during race 2, with the team suffering an electrical problem mid-race. Other retirements included the LP Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Lorenzo Marcucci/Alex Frassineti), the KMS Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Stefano Pezzucchi), and the Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (Kikko Galbiati/Giovanni Venturini).

Currently leading the overall standings is Riccardo Agostini with 83 points, followed by Lorenzo Ferrari (57 pts), Yuki Nemoto and Tuomas Tujula (54 pts), and Stefano Comandini and Marius Zug (53 pts). Simon Mann and Matteo Cressoni lead the GT3 Pro-Am standings with 86 points, ahead of Alessandro Vezzoni and Daniele Di Amato (74 pts), and Mattia Michelotto and Sean Hudspeth (65 pts). Marco Cassarà and Alex De Giacomi lead the Am class with 60 points.

The BMW M4 GT4 of Francesco Guerra and Simone Riccitelli won a hard-fought race in GT4, successfully fending off the second-placed Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Scuderia Villorba Corse (Andrea Belicchi/Jody Simone) and the third-placed AMG GT4 of Nova Race (Luca Segù/Francesco De Luca).

GT4 Am class honors went to Luca Magnoni driving his Nova Race Mercedes-AMG GT4. Paolo Meloni finished second in his W&D BMW M4 GT4, while rounding out the third step of the podium was the Cram Motorsport Porsche Cayman GT4 of Daniel Vebster and Giacomo Riva.

Matteo Greco and Riccardo Chiesa swept the weekend, easily winning race 2 in their Easy Race Ferrari 488 Challenge.

The Italian GT Sprint Series Championship will now head over to Vallelunga for their season finale set for the 4th through 6th of December, while the Campionato Italiano GT Endurance championship returns to Monza for a three-hour race from 6th to 8th November.

 
 

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