Italian GT Mugello: Rinaldi Racing wins the race and the championship after 180-minute Tuscan thriller

Dylan Medler and Alessandro Balzan have won both the race and the championship of the Italian GT in Mugello. The duo from the #45 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo kept their heads cool in a race that was chaotic from start to finish. Rain caused trouble for many cars, including the title-contenders from Antonelli Motorsport and DL Racing.

The start was delayed slightly due to crashes in the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia earlier in the morning. It caused the Italian Formula 4 race to start later as well. Around 13:30 CET, the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo finally got underway. The conditions had changed significantly: temperatures had dropped to ten degrees Celcius with track temperatures of below ten. On top of that, it was raining. The race started under the Safety Car. It remained in front of the pack for three laps.

When the race went green, Alex Aka in the #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 managed to overtake Lorenzo Ferrari in the #64 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Dylan Medler in the #45 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo moved up to P3. It was also a good opening phase for the #24 Dinamic Porsche 992 GT3 R with Francesco Simonazzi behind the wheel. The Italian told GT REPORT on Saturday that was aiming for a fightback after showing pace early in the weekend.

After fifteen minutes, Simonazzi had moved up toP2 after a short fight with Medler and was on the hunt for the leading position next. It was obvious that the Porsche felt great in the rain, looking at its rear-traction in combination with rear-mounted engine weight distribution. In addition to that, Simonazzi did a great job pushing forward in tricky conditions.

Safety Car returns early after spin of #69 Ferrari

Not long after the opening phase the Safety Car returned on track when the #69 Spirit of Racing Ferrari of Fabrizio Fontana and Stefano Gai spun into the gravel. The car could get out of the gravel on its own. The #62 Ferrari was experiencing problems as well, briefly stopping next to the track. The car soon couldn’t move anymore, resulting in a Full Course Yellow after the Safety Car had gone into the pits again.

The conditions worsened meanwhile, with heavier rain and more spray on track. Simonazzi had stormed from P8 to P1, the #64 Mercedes dropped to P5. Another remarkable opening stint was the one of Colin Caresani in the #16 Stratia Motorsport Mercedes. The Dutchman started P37 overall and climbed up to P19 to take the lead in the AM class.

Many teams took the opportunity to go for a pitstop during the FCY. Caresani handed over the #16 Mercedes to Sacha Lehmann. The #99 Audi and the #24 Porsche switched positions in the pit lane, with Levi now taking over the lead after taking over from Aka. Simonazzi gave the car to teammate Matteo Cressoni. Meanwhile, the #7 Ceccato Racing BMW drove into the top three.

Tresor Audi and Dinamic Porsche with dramatic grid drop

After an hour of racing in horrible conditions, the weather didn’t improve. Slippery white lines and kerbs caused the #99 Audi to go off-track, with the #24 Porsche following. The two cars had to get out of the gravel without digging themselves in, which they managed to do. They did lose a lot of positions, as Levi dropped from P1 to P14 and Cressoni dropped to P19. A crash of the #89 Lamborghini caused another FCY.

The FCY transformed into a Safety Car with 115 minutes to go – a little under two hours. Four minutes after the Safety Car was deployed, the race went green again. The #72 Lamborghini led the restart, with the #66 Lamborghini and the #7 BMW in its mirrors. It was a messy period of the cars, with multiple Full Course Yellows and Safety Cars following.

Antonelli Motorsport in trouble after spin

For the #64 Mercedes it was an important race for the championship – which seemed to go down the drain as Ferrari was tapped into a spin by a slower car during an overtake. He spun into the gravel and it took him a while to get out, meaning they were significantly put on the back foot with two laps behind.

The leading position was swapped a couple of times, and so was the position of the potential champions, with the #66 Lamborghini being on the course of the title, and later the #45 Ferrari. The rain meanwhile kept falling down and kept the conditions tricky, with multiple spins and incidents causing more FCY’s and Safety Cars.

One of them was deployed for the spin of the #16 Mercedes with Lehmann behind the wheel, who got stuck in the gravel after Caresani had worked hard and put it in the leading position in the AM class. With 36 minutes to go, the race restarted and the #45 Ferrari and the #72 Lamborghini continued their fight for the lead and the title.

Italian thriller to the flag

The championship was fully open to the flag, as the #66 Lamborghini was working on a last-thirty-minute recovery drive after a drive-through penalty. With 29 minutes to go, another round of pitstops found place in which both cars in the front went into the pits. It bought Simonazzi in the #24 Porsche back into the leading position. During another pitstop, he handed over the car to Cressoni for the last stint.

The #72 came back on track in P2 and, again, had the #45 behind him. Another Safety Car kept the field together for the remaining minutes of the race. Chaos erupted once more as the #72 hit the #24 Porsche. The championship immediately went down the drain with that, and brought the #45 Ferrari championship. The Pro-AM championship was then won by David Perel and Rafael Duran in the #50 Spirit of Racing Ferrari.