Italian GT Mugello Saturday Notebook: Francesco Simonazzi and Stefano Gai eye Sunday fightback

Red flags left drivers with little room for error during Saturday’s qualifying at Mugello. For Francesco Simonazzi and Stefano Gai, interrupted preparations and missed opportunities meant there was more speed available than the timesheets suggested. GT REPORT reviews the Saturday with the Dinamic GT and Spirit of Racing drivers.

Simonazzi’s #24 Porsche ended qualifying eighth in the provisional combined results, but the Italian stepped out of the car disappointed. A red flag arrived just as he was preparing to start his flying lap, disrupting the tyre preparation that he felt was important to getting a competitive time out of the Porsche.

“It wasn’t a really good session for me,” he says. “The red flag created a bit of chaos with the tyres and their temperature. Unfortunately, I was about to start my lap and had tried to put as much energy into them as I could when the red flag came.

“We put them back into the heaters, but after one minute we had to take them out again. They ended up halfway through a temperature cycle. When I went out for my second outing, the tyres weren’t in the right window.”

The interruption left Simonazzi unable to improve on his Friday performance, even as qualifying offered the opportunity to push harder. “It was really chaotic, and I couldn’t improve my lap time or do better than yesterday in FP2, so I’m quite disappointed,” he continues. “We’ll wait to see the combined results. From my side, I may have made some little mistakes here and there, but I think the main problem was that the tyres weren’t in the right window.”

One lap to make it count

A second attempt brought little relief. Simonazzi felt the best of the tyre had already gone by the time he could try again, leaving him with a narrow opportunity to extract the Porsche’s pace. “It was a temperature problem that created chaos. This car only has one lap – the Porsche has one lap at Mugello,” he explains. “There’s very, very low grip around the circuit, so it wears the tyres a lot. When I came back for the second push, there was no more tyre.

He puts that sensitivity down to a combination of the Porsche’s characteristics, such as its unique weight distribution, and the surface at Mugello. “I think half of it comes down to the car’s weight and its distribution, which is more towards the rear. The second part is how the track is made. There isn’t much macrotexture, and the asphalt is very old. It hasn’t been resurfaced, so it’s slippery out there.”

Simonazzi felt the impact of fresh tyres was less extreme than on Friday, with the amount of running throughout the weekend potentially contributing to the change. “Yes, it was less,” he says. “I think there had been many sessions and many cars going out on track every time with the same specification of tyre.”

The Porsche driver is, however, focussing on the positives: “I have more confidence in tomorrow,” he says. “Sunday will be about race pace and focusing on managing the tyres. I have really good confidence in that.”

Gai left wanting more

Over at Spirit of Racing, Gai had his own reasons to feel qualifying had offered more than it delivered. His 1:46.290 in the #69 Ferrari was the quickest GT3 Am time in his group’s Q2 session, but he believed a clearer run could have put him much closer to the overall session leaders.

“Our first out-lap was ruined by the yellow flag and then the red flag,” he says. “We went back out with new tyres, but I lost a lot of time behind Donno’s (Eliseo, ed.) Lamborghini. The result could have been much, much better. We were fighting for P1 or maybe P2 overall. But it’s good because we did P1 in the Am class, so it’s not bad!”

For Gai and teammate Fabrizio Fontana, the weekend also involves rebuilding confidence following Fontana’s heavy accident at Mugello during the Sprint weekend in July. “My teammate is struggling a little here because he had a very heavy crash in the Sprint race at Mugello in July,” Gai explains. “That has made things difficult for him here, but we’re trying to work through it now.

“The race is long, and we’ll have to wait for the combined results.”

A good race still to chase

The pair already have a GT3 AM Sprint title secured in Monza, but their Endurance season has been more difficult. Gai points to trouble at Monza as part of the reason they arrive at the finale without a championship to fight for. “We’ve already won the GT Sprint series,” Gai continues. “In this one, there’s nothing we can do because we also had problems at Monza. My teammate had a small crash in that race, so we can’t fight for the championship. But for sure, we can fight for a good race!”

Sunday’s three-hour finale begins at 13:15 CET, giving both crews considerably more time to work their way forward than Saturday’s interrupted qualifying allowed.