2Hour-report - Silverstone Winners Lead in Italy

The 4 Hours of Imola began with Harry Tincknell in the no38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan leading the 37 car field into the first corner from pole position.  The British driver held the lead for the whole of his stint despite some pressure from the no36 Signatech Alpine of Nelson Panciatici, who had got ahead of the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Morgan of Ludovic Badey at the start. 

On lap 25 Panciatici pitted to hand over to Paul Loup Chatin and a lap later Tincknell came in to hand over to Simon Dolan.  Dolan rejoined in the lead of the race but held a slim 1.1 second advantage which wasn't enough to hold off the 2013 ELMS LMPC champion.  A incident not seen on camera saw the lead change on lap 37, with Chatin opening up a 5 second gap over Dolan as the Englishman fell down the order to 5th on lap 41.

On lap 49 there was a further change as Gary Hirsch in the no43 Newblood by Morand Racing overtook the TDS Racing Morgan for 2nd place, with Pierre Thiriet soon coming under pressure from Rodolfo Gonzlez in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca, who was still at the wheel of the no48 machine.  Hirsch went wide at the final corner allowing the two drivers following to catch up and the Swiss driver had to defend hard to retain his second place. 

On lap 53 Chatin brought the Signatech Alpine into the pits from the lead followed by the rest of the field but the pitstop schedule shuffled the order with Thiriet rejoining at the front of the race ahead of the no43 Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan now with Romain Brandella at the wheel.  Chatin was back in 3rd place, just 5.3 seconds behind the leader, with Gonzalez in the no48 machine right behind the Signatech Alpine. 

As the clock ticked towards the 120 minute mark, Chatin moved into second ahead Brandella, and then Gonzalez passed the 3rd placed Morgan, but there was contact as Brandella tried to move out of the way into Turn 1. The manoeuvre was judge to be the fault of Gonzalez and a stop-go penalty was awarded to the no48 Murphy Prototype Oreca as the first half of the race closed.

LMGTE 2-hour report

The very warm temperatures (24o ambient and 44oC on track) and bright sunshine have done nothing to hold back Kessel Racing this afternoon, with the No.81 having led the LMGTE class from early in the race until the second round pit stops took place at the mid-way point.  Matteo Cressoni, who took the start in the Swiss team's Ferrari 458 Italia was utterly dominant and had pulled out a lead of over 30 seconds by the time he handed over to his team mate Thomas Kemenater.

Now at the head of the class timesheets is the No.72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Bertolini-Shaitar-Zlobin which has been in the mix from the green flag, its two Russian drivers doing an excellent job among the many Italians on the grid who have the advantage of local track knowledge.  Third in class is the No.66 F458 of JMW Motorsport ((McKenzie-Richardson-Zampieri) which has made good progress from its 8th place on the LMGTE grid.

At the head of the battle for some time was the second Kessel Ferrari, the No.80 of Broniszewski-Piccini until suspension damage delayed them in the pits, and the No.55 AF Corse Ferrari of Griffin-Cameron-Venturi has also been slightly delayed due to loose rear bodywork following contact.

Ferraris hold the top six places in class, with the first Porsche being the No.67 IMSA Performance Matmut 911 GT3 RSR.

2H GTC report

Ferrari in control, SMP Racing at the head of GTC

Although it started from pole position in the GTC category, the No.60 F458 GT3 of Formula Racing was upstaged first by the No.95 AF Corse entry of Cedric Sbirrazzuoli who made a very good start and led in the first 30 minutes.  The Danish No.60 reclaimed the lead at the 1h30 mark and had a battle thereafter with the No.73 SMP Racing Ferrari F458 which also made ​​a perfect start in the hands of Russian Anton Ladygin.  As he handed the SMP Ferrari over to Monegasque Olivier Beretta, the Formula Racing Ferrari of Danes Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Mac and Italian Andrea Piccini took its place at the head before Beretta reclaimed his place at the front at the mid-way point of the race. 

The first part of the GTC race was therefore played out between the two SMP Racing Ferraris, and that of the Danish team.  AF Corse is trying to make its mark on the race with its additional entry, the No.94 of Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci, but at the moment it's in fourth place in class.