Weekend Racing Roundup, 6.1

There were two national GT championships racing last weekend. The Silverstone 500, round three of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, took place on Sunday, while over at Monza almost 40 cars raced in the second round of the Italian GT Championship. A short weekend racing roundup this week.

Avon Tyres British GT Championship
Former FIA GT3 European champion Gilles Vannelet and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs were a late addition to the British GT field, replacing Euan Hankey and the banned Salih Yoluc. Vannelet qualified, then left for Le Mans to take part in the official test, before heading back to Silverstone, where he arrived just in time to take the start.

The pair overcame changing weather conditions and two safety car periods to recover crashed Aston Martin Vantages. In traffic Quaife-Hobbs nearly lost the lead on the final lap, but the Von Ryan Racing driver held on and secured the team’s second three-hour GT3 race victory at Silverstone in as many weeks.

Race – 1. Von Ryan Racing (Quaife-Hobbs/Vannelet) McLaren, 2. Triple Eight Racing (Mowle/Osborne) BMW, 3. Barwell Motorsport/Ecurie Ecosse (Attard/Sims) BMW.

Italian GT Championship
The second round of the season was held at Monza and in the first race on Saturday it was Vito Postiglione in a Porsche 997 GT3 R who led the race from the start until the mandatory driver change. Teammate Vincenzo Donativi emerged from the pit, still in the lead ahead of Francesco Sini (Corvette) and Mirko Bortolotti (Lamborghini).

The Lamborghini driver closed the gap and took the lead on lap 22, immediately pulling away from Donativi and Sini. The Solaris Motorsport Corvette driver eventually managed to pass Donativi’s Porsche, but was unable to close the gap to Bortolotti, finishing 0.922 seconds behind the race winner.

On Sunday Bortolotti pulled away from the rest of the field right from the start, before handing over to teammate Alberto Viberti. There were some battles further down the field, but Viberti was never troubled and cruised to his team’s second victory of the weekend.

Race 1 – 1. Imperiale Racing (Bortolotti/Viberti) Lamborghini, 2. Solaris Motorsport (Sini/Keilwitz) Corvette, 3. Ebimotors (Postiglione/Donativi) Porsche.

Race 2 – 1. Imperiale Racing (Bortolotti/Viberti) Lamborghini, 2. Scuderia Villorba Corse (Schiro/Berton) Ferrari, 3. Scuderia Baldini (Case/Gattuso) Ferrari.