Double Top for Ferrari in Imola

Andrea Bertolini in the No.72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia took the team's first class victory of the 2014 season after relentlessly chasing down the No.81 Kessel Racing Ferrari in the final hour.  The very experienced Ferrari factory driver was undoubtedly helped in his cause by the safety car which effectively wiped out the substantial lead built up by Thomas Kemenater and his team mate Matteo Cressoni in the first three hours.  Bertolini and his Russian team mates Viktor Shaitar and Sergey Zlobin had always been in the mix following a strong drive by all three, but the Kessel pole-sitters will be feeling understandably disappointed to have lost out at such a late stage.

Third in class went to the No.66 JMW Ferrari 458 of Daniel McKenzie, George Richardson and Daniel Zampieri – another of the Italian cars to have been a contender throughout and the only other car to finish on the same lap as the class winners.  Fourth and fifth respectively, and gaining valuable points, were the No.56 AT Racing and No.58 Team SOFREV-ASP Ferraris.  The Prancing Horse marque filled the top six places in the category, with the No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR taking 7th in class.

As had been anticipated there was a bit of bumping and rubbing between the 37 competitors on track, and two of the three cars not running at the finish were LMGTE entries – the No.80 Kessel Racing Ferrari which lost a wheel – fortunately without causing any damage or distress to anyone else – and the No.54 AF Corse entry which went out mid-way through after running as high as second in the first hour.  

The GTC class was an equally close affair, with the first three also being Ferraris and all finishing on the same lap.  The appearance of the safety car had an effect on this class too, closing up all the competitors and ensuring a tightly contested final hour. 

Taking its first European Le Mans Series win in only its second race was the No.60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Danes Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac and Italian Andrea Piccini who was substituting for Jan Magnussen.  The Danish-entered Ferrari, which is managed by AF Corse, started from class pole position, thanks to Mikkel Mac, and – pit stops apart – never ran lower than third. 

The second and third steps of the GTC podium were filled by SMP Racing – the No.73 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Olivier Beretta-David Markozov-Anton Ladygin edging out their team mates in the No. 71 entry (Kirill Ladygin-Aleksey Basov-Luca Persiani) by 2.5 seconds at the chequered flag.    Six of the top seven cars in GTC were Ferraris, the only interloper being the fourth placed No.99 ART Grand Prix McLaren MP4 12C GT3 of Ricardo Gonzalez-Karim Ajlani-Alex Brundle.

For some of the European Le Mans Series competitors the next race will be the ‘big one', the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 14/15th June.  The whole ELMS field will be back together again for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring in Austria on 20th July and another thrilling race is surely to be expected.